Turner's 'Blue Rigi' sells for a record £5.8m

In just 10 minutes of frantic bidding, one of the most important watercolours in British art history also became the most expensive. The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise by JMW Turner was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder yesterday for £5.8m, nearly three times more than the valuers' pre-sale estimate of £2m.

The previous record of £2.04m for a Turner on paper was set by Heidelberg with a Rainbow in 2000. The record for a Turner on canvas is £20.4m for Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, set in April.

The bidding ended to gasps of astonishment among those attending the sale at Christie's in London. The auctioneer, Noel Annesley, Christie's honorary chairman, was forced to ask for hush so he could continue. He said afterwards that Christie's was delighted with the result, which had been achieved in an atmosphere of fevered expectation. He said: "The build-up of anticipation during the run-up to the sale as well as the enthusiastic response wherever The Blue Rigi was displayed encouraged us to believe that this auction would lead to ground-breaking results."

The Blue Rigi, considered the most important watercolour to come on to the market in more than half a century, was one of a trio of works the great artist produced while visiting Switzerland towards the end of his life.

Described as an extraordinary study in light and colour, it depicts the calm of sunrise interrupted by sudden movement as a gunshot spurs a pair of dogs to leap from a small boat towards some startled ducks.

Andrew Wilton, a Turner scholar, has described the painting as intensely vivid. He said: "The barking [dogs] and the sound of splashing strike us as almost audible, and vividly dramatise the inviolable tranquillity of the scene: a real place, inhabited by the denizens of a real and yet beautiful world."