Borremans is most expensive living Belgian artist

During a contemporary art auction at Sotheby's London, the oil painting 'Girl with duck' by Belgian painter Michaël Borremans was auctioned off for £2.04 million, or €2.7 million, the highest amount ever paid for a painting by the Ghent artist, reports De Tijd.

Borremans' 'Girl with duck' (pictured), which he painted in 2011, was sold a year later to the Indonesian-Chinese collector Budi Tek. Tek has now resold the painting at a high profit, as the painting's worth was initially estimated at between £600,000 and £1 million, half of the final result. Borremans also benefits from the resale, but with a €12,500 cap on the royalty.

With the sale, Borremans dethrones Luc Tuymans as Belgium's most expensive living artist. Tuymans' painting 'The Rumour' was auctioned in New York in 2013 for €2.1 million.

The painter reported having mixed feelings about the sale: "I'm shocked. Never before has anyone paid so much for one of my works. That's flattering, but the real winner is the salesman. He deserves a lot of money," Borremans told De Tijd.