After the contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s on May 12, 2010, even the Grey Lady of journalism declared, “The art market party goes on.” The New York Times noted that the take was $190 million, a number run up not only by the sale of a Rothko and a Warhol, but by record prices for artists virtually unknown outside sophisticated art circles.
A Warhol self portrait done just a year before he died fetched $$32.56 million, and an “Untitled” Rothko went for $31.44 million. But paintings and 3-D “sculptures” that border on being indescribable earned record prices in the millions. Out of 50 lots brought to the podium, only 3 were not sold.
