RARE antiques from Castle Howard have raised £12.7 million - £2million more than expected - at auction at Sotheby's.

The Howard family had said it was auctioning the items to secure the financial future of the stately home and the nine items had been expected to raise up to £10.8million.

Lots auctioned ranged from Roman antiquities to Old Masters, including a painting of Venice’s Grand Canal by Bernardo Bellotto, which went for £2.56 million.

The item to go for the highest price was a painting by Ferdinand Bol - one Rembrandt’s favourite and most talented pupils - called a Portrait of a Boy, Said to be the Artist's Son, Aged 8.

It had been expected to reach a maximum of £3million but ended up going for £5,189,000 setting a new record for the artist.

Nicholas and Simon Howard said: "Over the centuries, our family has had the extraordinary good fortune to be the custodians of many great treasures. We very much hope that those that were sold today will bring as much joy to their new owners as they have to us and to our ancestors. Their sale will help us to secure the future of Castle Howard as it moves into its fourth century.”

Other items included a portrait of Henry VIII, dated 1542, the year when the king’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded on the grounds of alleged adultery from the Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger - which went for £965,000 - and a monumental quartz granite vase from Roman Egypt which sold for £1.1m, having been expected to reach up to £600,000.

A pair of Italian ebony cabinets made in 1625 sold for £1.3m.

The auction comes after major changes at the 18th century estate, after it emerged last year that Simon Howard had been asked to step down as chairman of the board which runs Castle Howard. Simon, who last year overcame throat cancer, has run the baroque home for 30 years.

His elder brother, Nicholas had indicated he wished to move into the family home he grew up in, along with his wife Victoria Barnsley. They have now taken over the day-to-day running of the estate.

Both families now live in the 145-room house, occupying apartments in separate wings. The brothers jointly sanctioned the sale to raise funds.