Tracey Emin's My Bed Auctioned For £2.5m

Tracey Emin's modern artwork My Bed has been sold at auction in London for £2.5m.

The work features an unmade bed surrounded by a floor littered by empty vodka bottles, cigarette butts and condoms.

It went under the hammer at Christie's after being put up for sale by the art collector Charles Saatchi with a guide price of between £800,000 and £1.2m, but ended up going for £2.2m - or £2.54m including buyer's premium.

Saatchi paid £150,000 for My Bed in 2000. The artwork was one of the key works in the Young British Artist movement.

Emin, 50, grinned as she left the auction after the piece was sold.

A senior member of the auction house hinted the work could end up on public display after being snapped up by an anonymous bidder.

Francis Outred, head of post-war contemporary art at Christie's, told a press conference after the sale: "I think it will end up going to a very good place.

"We can't announce it but I think it is going to end up somewhere important so watch this space for an announcement."

Jussi Pylkkanen, the auctioneer and president of Christie's Europe, said he had spoken to Emin after the sale and she had been "very, very happy".

He told the press conference: "I just caught Tracey at the Serpentine party, I just called her to see how she felt about things and she said she was absolutely delighted.

"She was very nervous going into the sale.

"Thanks everyone for supporting the sale of that object, it meant a huge amount to her."

The Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction also saw the sale of Francis Bacon's Study For Head Of Lucian Freud.

The work sold for a hammer price of £10.2m.