A Lucio Fontana “slashed” canvas formerly owned by Andy Warhol was the top seller in an auction that raised $9 million as trademark works by contemporary artists continued to attract collectors and investors.

The 1960 cream-colored “Concetto spaziale, Attese” -- with six of the Italian conceptual artist’s cuts making it instantly recognizable as his work -- fetched 1 million pounds ($1.65 million) including fees. It was among 25 lots of contemporary art offered by Phillips de Pury & Co. in London last night.

“Prices are strong,” the Paris-based collector John Sayegh- Belchatowski said. “The market is deep, not like the fantasy of 2007,” said Sayegh-Belchatowski, who was outbid on the two lots he hoped to buy.

Contemporary art is attracting newer buyers, with many opting for signature works by well-known artists such as Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. The Phillips event followed evening sales at Christie’s International (CHRS) and Sotheby’s (BID) that took a combined total of 131.3 million pounds with about 90 percent of the lots successful.

The Fontana was bought with a single bid from Phillips’s Moscow-based specialist Svetlana Marich, representing a client on the telephone. The price with fees equaled the low estimate, based on hammer prices. The work, with its prestigious provenance, would have attracted more competition if it hadn’t been previously offered on the market, dealers said.