A painting by Lucian Freud set a new record for a living European artist when it went under the hammer in London.

The 1992 portrait of the British artist's friend Bruce Bernard sold for £7,860,000 at Christie's last night, the highest ever bid for a Freud.

The painting, described as the most important Freud work to appear at auction, had been expected to fetch between £4.5 million and £5million.

Charles Dupplin, an art expert at insurer Hiscox, said: "This work by Freud, thought by many to be Britain's greatest living artist, always looked like a record breaker. Apart from the general trend for contemporary art going up in value, this is a particularly special and significant portrait of a close friend of Freud."

The piece shows late photographer and art critic Bernard, brother of journalist Jeffrey Bernard, standing with his hands in his pockets.

The sale was part of an auction of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's. It included Francis Bacon's Two Men Working In A Field, which sold for £5,060,000, and Landscape With A Car (£4,276,000). Three Marilyns, one of the first in Andy Warhol's series of prints of Marilyn Monroe, went for £5,620,000. The entire sale reached a total of more than £75million.