“An unprecedented urge to buy, regardless of style, medium or period drove bidders” at last week’s London contemporary art sales. “On Feb. 7 at Sotheby’s, the first 32 lots, mostly priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, sold straight off. This had never happened before. By the time the seventh lot, ‘White Canoe’ by Peter Doig, came up, a tense businesslike atmosphere prevailed.”