yesterday.

Someone paid 4,100 for two lots of paintings set in Bermuda, in an auction at Sotheby's in London on Wednesday.

But the purchaser asked to remain anonymous and has yet to surface.

The Bermuda Archives has said a benefactor was bidding on the paintings and would put them in the Archives if successful. But Government Archivist Mr.

John Adams said last night he still had not heard whether the benefactor was the successful bidder or not.

The Masterworks Foundation, which repatriates art about Bermuda or by Bermudians, did not bid at the request of then Culture and Community Affairs Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons, trustee Mr. Tom Butterfield said.

"We would have liked to have had them,'' Mr. Butterfield said of the paintings. "We took the gentlemanly stance and backed out.

"We thought there was only one bidder, and that was the Archives.'' But Sotheby's reported there was strong interest in the paintings, with one bidder in the auction room and two others on the telephone. One of the telephone bidders purchased both lots, a spokesman said.

Both lots fetched about twice what Sotheby's had expected. A watercolour of Commissioners' House, framed on one mount with paintings of an Interior and a sailing boat at sea, sold for 2,200. A portfolio of Bermuda scenes fetched 1,900.