Marc Newson's Lockheed Lounge has set the auction world record for a living designer.

The aluminium and fibreglass chair auctioned for £2.4m ($3.7m) at Phillips in London on April 28 - just below its £2.5m top estimate.

The Lockheed Lounge - form wins over function

In doing so it eclipsed the $2.1m set by a prototype of the chair in 2010.

"We are proud to have set, yet again, the auction record for Marc Newson, one of the most influential designers of the last quarter century," commented Phillips' worldwide head of design, Alexander Payne.

The value of the 1990 piece, named after the US aerospace firm, has little to do with comfort and everything to do with rarity and desirability.

The Australian designer produced just 15 examples of the chair, including four artist's proofs and the prototype. They came to prominence when one appeared in Madonna's music video for Rain in 1993.

Newson's now enormous reputation - Time magazine named him one of 2005's 100 most influential people - ensures demand for all his output is high.

He is now a part-time designer at Apple.

The auction also featured Jean Prouve's 6x9 demountable house, which sold within estimate for £602,500 ($928,515).

A Diego Giacometti table made £266,500 ($410,660).

"Very strong results were achieved for Shiro Kuramata, Gio Ponti, Diego Giacometti, Jean Royere and Joe Colombo, the sale attracted determined international bidding for the masters of 20th-century design," Payne said.

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