Auction house Sotheby's yesterday posted record results after bumper sales in the first six months of this year.

The auctioneer generated income of $132m (about £65m) in the first half, 92% higher than a year earlier and more than any full year in its history.

Its biggest sale was Mark Rothko's White Center, owned by David Rockefeller, which fetched nearly $73m, a record for contemporary art. Other lots included Francis Bacon's Study after Pope Innocent X, which fetched $53m.

Total sales over the six months reached $2.9bn, with 391 lots selling for more than $1m.

Bill Ruprecht, Sotheby's president and chief executive, described the results as "historic by all standards".

Sotheby's also made a one-off gain of $20m from a life insurance policy on Dutch art dealer Robert Noortman.

Mr Noortman, a Maastricht-based dealer in Old Master, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, sold his gallery to Sotheby's last year in a $56m deal which gave him a 3% stake in the auction house and a seat on its international advisory board. Mr Noortman died in January, and a "key man" insurance policy on his life paid out to Sotheby's for the loss of his expertise.