A painting by one of the Glasgow Boys which has been "missing" for almost 50 years has turned up at an auction and smashed the world record for the artist.

Playmates by George Henry was being sold by Sotheby's with a guide price of £50,000 to £70,000, but it fetched six times the estimate - £401,300.

The oil on canvas painting is one of several which art curators and historians have been eager to trace since it was last sold at a saleroom in Glasgow to a Scandinavian buyer in 1960. It has now been sold to an unnamed UK buyer.

Christopher Pensa, who deals with Scottish and Victorian pictures at Sotheby's, said: "It is probably one of three of the best examples of the Glasgow Boys. We knew it would do well but it exceeded all expectations."

The Scottish art sale fetched more than £4m last week.

The painting is one of a number that curators in Glasgow have been keen to locate for a major exhibition next year.

Glasgow Boys At Kelvingrove is to be the first major retrospective of the group's work for more than 40 years. Around 150 works by the group, which included Henry, James Guthrie and John Lavery, were collected by Glasgow's industrial and entrepreneurial classes.