A painting of Cornish fishermen by Falmouth artist Charles Napier Hemy has fetched £61,250 at auction- more than four times the expected price.
Hauling the Trammel Net has now become the third most valuable Hemy work sold at auction.
The other two are The Crab Pots, which sold for £120,000 in 2008 and Smugglers to Save their Necks sold for £66,000 in 1992.
Before the sale at Bonhams, the 1892 painting had been expected to reach between £10,000 and £15,000.
A mystery bidder snapped up the work.
A spokesman at Bonhams said: "The atmospheric work by Hemy is another example of the remarkable group of paintings of fishermen at work which he executed during the middle part of his career.
"Others include Bargaining for the Catch, How we caught the Pilchards, Sennen Cove, The Smelt Net, Pulling the Net and most famous of all, Pilchards."
