David Hockney auction record broken twice as paintings fetch almost £30m in New York

The record auction price for a work by David Hockney was broken twice in one evening when two pieces fetched more than $40.1million (£29.6million).

Famed British artist Pacific Coast Highway And Santa Monica’s seminal 1990 masterpiece went under the hammer at auction at Sotheby’s New York on Wednesday for $28.5 million (£21 million) – more than double the previous benchmark.

The record sale came shortly after a 1978 work entitled Piscine de Medianoche (Paper Pool 30) fetched $11.7 million (£8.6 million) at auction – around $30,000 (£22,000) more than the previous one Record set by his Yorkshire landscape, Woldgate Woods. 2016 at Sotheby’s.

It was the first time both pieces had been auctioned, Sotheby’s said.