'Lost' Rubens fetches record £49.5m at auction

A long-lost Rubens became the most expensive painting sold at auction when it was bought for more than £49.5m last night.

Massacre of the Innocents, which for three centuries was wrongly attributed to another artist, achieved 10 times its estimated £4m to £6m price, going to a private collecter after a fierce bidding battle.

A packed salesroom at Sotheby's in London watched its price soar to £49,506,650 including buyer's premium – outstripping the previous highest by almost half a million pounds.

Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet sold at Christie's, New York, 12 years ago for $82.5m (£49m at the 1990 exchange rate).

Offers by three bidders for the Rubens, which portrays the slaying of newborn boys by decree of King Herod, leapt up by increments of £1m. It eventually went to Sam Fogg, a London dealer, on behalf of a client.

A Sotheby's spokeswoman said: "It was completely the most wonderful thing to be in that room. Staff who have worked here for 30 years said they had never seen anything so wonderful."