Powered in part by Francis Bacon's petitely-scaled 1964 triptych of his friend and fellow artistLucian Freud, which made $37 million (£23 million), Sotheby's pulled off a 100-percent-sold single-owner sale that fetched $150,455,941 (£93,520,600), easily hurdling its £55 million high estimate.

Though Sotheby's kept the seller's name secret — coyly marketing the sale as "Looking Closely: A Private Collection" — buyers from around the world feverishly bid for the 40 lots offered. Those in the know were aware that the art's source was understood to be the late Geneva-based collector George Kostalitz, an Eastern European businessman who built a fortune selling Japanese electronics and cars to the South American market, and who long maintained a home in Paris.

But even without a trace more of backstory (usually a selling factor in high-profile single-owner sales), four artist records were set, 25 lots fetched over one million pounds, and 28 made over a million dollars. There was so much bidding in the room and from the telephone banks that it took close to an hour for the first 23 lots to sell. It was strictly a millionaire's evening, with an average lot of price was $2.5 million (£1.6 million).

The highly anticipated evening got off to a roaring start, with works such as Juan Gris's Cubist "Siphon et Verre," a 1916 crayon, pencil, and gouache on paper (est. £350-450,000), selling to a telephone bidder for $1.6 million (£993,250), and Joan Miro's "Sans Titre," a racy and page-sized 1924 work of pastel, pencil, and watercolor on painted panel (est. £500-700,000), going for $2.6 million (£1.6 million) to Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, the widow of the storied art dealer Jan Krugier. Kostalitz had acquired the Miro from a single owner sale of Tristan Tzara's collection at a 1988 Paris auction for 2.5 million French francs.

The depth of the current market and the hunger for world-class and rare works was epitomized by the performance ofSalvadore Dali's hovering 13-by-9 7/8-inch "Portrait de Paul Eluard" from 1929, which rocketed to a record $21,688,635 (£13,481,250) against a £3.5-5 million estimate, tripling the £4 million record set at Christie's on Wednesday evening. It also became the most expensive Surrealist work ever to sell at auction.

Kostalitz had bought the picture featuring the French Surrealist poet at Christie's New York in November 1989 for a then-record $2.3 million.

Massive prices were achieved for tiny works as Julio Gonzalez's 9-7/8-inch-high iron sculpture "Masque Ombre et Lumiere" (circa 1930) made a record $7,453,973 (£4,633,250) on an estimate of £800,000-1.2 million, beating the mark set earlier in the evening with Gonzalez's "Masque My" (circa 1927-29), another, slightly shorter unique iron work that realized $4.4 million (£2.7 million) on a £800,000-1.2 million estimate.

The sluggish reception for Alberto Giacometti works earlier in the week vanished as "Figurine sur Grand Socle," a miniature 1950 bronze of a standing female nude, sold to London dealer Alan Hobart for $2.2 million (£1.4 million) against a £400-600,000 estimate. Hobart also nabbed Giacometti's riveting "Portrait d'Annette au Pull-Over Rouge" from 1961 for $7.8 million (£4.9 million) on an estimate of £2-3 million.

Unlike the telephone-dominated bidding at Christie's on Wednesday evening, there was also some lively action in the room, as an otherwise unidentified American collector outgunned intense competition for the jewel-like cover-lot Lucian Freud "Self-Portrait," a 1952 work on copper (est. £600-800,000), that made $5.3 million (£3.3 million). Kostalitz paid £88,000 for it at Sotheby's London in March 1992.

Buttonholed as he exited the salesroom, the new owner of the 5-by-3 ¼-inch oil declined to give his name but evidently knew a lot about the background of the painting. "I thought it was unusually special," said the gentleman, "and the fact that he painted it on a banana boat bound for Jamaica and was bored out of his mind, helped."Freud, now 88, was observed at a reception at Sotheby's on Monday evening and also figured prominently in the evening as the subject of Francis Bacon's 1964 "Three Studies for Portrait of Lucian Freud," which sold to Cologne dealer Alex Lachmann for the top-lot price of $37 million (£23 million) against an estimated £7-9 million. It was directly underbid by Swiss-based phone bidder Dimitri Mavromatis, who was also one of the flock of underbidders for the record Dali. The work now ranks as the seventh most expensive Bacon to sell at auction.

Kostalitz acquired the mini-triptych, each panel measuring 24-by-11 7/8-inches, from Bacon's primary dealer, Marlborough Gallery, in London in 1964 — the same year it was painted — for a price understood to be around $7,000.

Huge prices were also achieved by artists who rarely grace the evening sales, as evidenced by the abstract artist Wols's "Sans Titre" (1946-47) that sold for a record $4,210,632 (£2,617,250) (est. £100-150,000). You might ask Wols who they were, but at least two bidders coveted the expressive canvas. Meanwhile, Jean Fautrier's "Corps D'Otage," a circa 1943 work resembling a female figure in mixed media on paper laid down on panel, sold to a telephone bidder for $4 million (£2.5 million) on an estimate of £700-900,000.

As the last lot sold, and the audience burst into applause, a porter ceremoniously delivered a pair of white art-handler gloves to auctioneer Tobias Meyer, indicating a perfect sale without a single buy-in. Meyer quickly pulled them on and ambled around the room, shaking hands with various luminaries from that world.

"Connoisseurship and eye are the key to our world," said Meyer, "and this was a very beautiful marriage of a great collection going to great collectors."

The evening auction action resumes in London on Tuesday at Sotheby's with contemporary art.