"Quality speaks," said Daniella Luxembourg, private art dealer in New York and London. "The rarity of things like Rothko is covering the aggressive estimates."
'Because I Love It'
The most aggressively estimated Warhol of the season didn't fare as well. A 1986 self-portrait of the artist in a spiky wig sold for $27.5 million, missing the low estimate of $30 million. It landed with the Mugrabi family, known for its vast Warhol collection and steadfast support of the artist's market.
When asked why he bought the Warhol, Jose Mugrabi said, "Why? Because I love it. I have no client for it."
Projected to fetch $30 million to $40 million, the haunting 9-foot-square canvas had the highest forecast during two weeks of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art sales in New York.
Warhol's auction record of $71.7 million was achieved at Christie's in 2007 with the sale of a 1963 canvas, "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)."
Rothko's "Untitled No. 17" features pink and red rectangles on a tangerine-yellow background. The 1961 painting, which hasn't been seen publicly since 1965, is one of 10 of his discovered since the publication of the artist's catalogue raisonne in 1998.
"It's one of the very few that got away," said David Anfam, London-based art historian, recently. "It went to a private collection soon after it was made and those collectors just kept a very low profile."
Bear by Urs
A giant, 35,000-pound yellow teddy bear by Urs Fischer, parked for the past month outside of Manhattan's Seagram building, sold for $6.8 million, a record for the artist-and for a teddy bear.