ART

Christie’s auction house in London has held its first-ever sale of Spanish paintings, with a lighthearted “picture within a picture” (Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta’s “En El Estudio”) fetching the highest individual price of $233,000. The 170 paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries reaped a total of $2.1 million on Friday, with prices “well beyond expectations,” said a Christie’s statement.