Christie's International said auction totals rose 25 percent last year on soaring sales of contemporary art. The London-based company, which is owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, sold 3.1 billion pounds ($6.1 billion) of art in 2007 at auctions and in private sales, according to an e-mailed statement. Sotheby's drew level with its rival last year, reporting $6.2 billion in sales at auctions and in private sales, up 51 percent from 2006. At Christie's, contemporary-art auctions were 75 percent higher, at 772 million pounds. Warhol's 1963 "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)" sold in May for $71.7 million. Old master painting sales slipped 3 percent. The same month, Sotheby's sold a Mark Rothko painting owned by David Rockefeller for $72.8 million at auction. Christie's and Sotheby's, the two largest auction houses, have benefited as new billionaires bid up values for the most expensive contemporary artworks fourfold in 11 years, and as sellers flocked to the market to beat a possible slide in prices. "We're seeing continued growth in consignments, and we have to hope that when we've got great products, we'll have the buyers," Christie's chief executive officer, Edward Dolman, said in a telephone interview this week. Christie's doesn't disclose revenue or profit, although it releases auction totals twice a year. Year-earlier figures weren't provided for comparison in the statement, only percentage gains. Broad, Pinchuk Contemporary art, favored by collectors from Pinault and Eli Broad of the U.S. to Ukrainian Victor Pinchuk for their private museums and homes, was Christie's biggest segment of business. In growth, it was outpaced only by private transactions, which rose 94 percent, to 267 million pounds, and by Russian auctions, which rose 88 percent, to 71 million pounds. "There is potential for more growth in contemporary art as more people become interested in it," Dolman said in the interview. Phillips de Pury & Co., which specializes in contemporary art, photography and design, said 2007 auctions were 2.2 times higher, at $308 million. Christie's sales of European furniture and books and manuscripts shrank, as did old master auctions, which totaled 151 million pounds. Christie's key sales continue to grow this year, though at a slower pace as bank losses mount on subprime mortgages and other investments. For next month, Christie's London sales of impressionist and contemporary art have a top estimate of 285.5 million pounds, a 38 percent increase from the presale valuation of 207 million pounds for auctions in February 2006, Dolman said. A Francis Bacon painting of people on a beach, "Triptych 1974- 77," is estimated at 25 million pounds or more. Growth in London At last year's impressionist and contemporary sales in London, Christie's took in 199.8 million pounds, including commissions, or 55 percent more than its 2006 total of 129.3 million pounds. London was Christie's fastest-growing market in 2007. Auctions at Christie's King Street headquarters swelled 40 percent, to 927 million pounds. The amount of art sold in New York, the largest art center, rose 15 percent, to $1.3 billion. "London is home to some of the world's richest people," Dolman said. "New Russian buyers in particular seem very comfortable buying in the London market."Sales in Asia Asian art sales climbed 38 percent, to 324 million pounds. About 70 percent of the amount was sold in Hong Kong, where Christie's set a record for a Chinese contemporary artist when Cai Guo-Qiang's set of fourteen images sold for HK$74.2 million ($9.5 million) in November. "We continue to predict strong growth in Asia and strong appetite from our new bases of clients, especially mainland Chinese," Dolman said. Impressionist and modern art sales, once the auction houses' largest business, rose 8 percent at Christie's, to 717 million pounds. Online art sales and bids in the first year totaled 78.2 million pounds, Christie's said. In dollars, Christie's sold 36 percent more art last year, Dolman said.