Estimated at $100-150,000, "Invisible Man (Two Views)" (1991), Glenn Ligon’s powerful ode to Ralph Ellison’s only novel, sold for a record $434,000. It was reportedly acquired for $22,000 back in 1991, again at the Max Protetch gallery. Another high-flier was Gerhard Richter’s iconic 1991 portrait, "Betty," a color lithograph from an edition of 25 (est. $100-150,000), that hit $458,500 — big money for a multiple.

Prices went high and low for no obvious reasons, as when Mark Grotjahn’s color-saturated, roughly seven-foot-by-six-foot cover-lot canvas, "Untitled (Three-tiered Perspective)," from 2000 and estimated at $600-800,000, fetched $782,500, the third highest price achieved in the marathon sale. That buzz didn't last: the next lot, John Currin’s dour "Shakespeare Actress" from 1991 (est. $500-700,000), sold for a scant $362,500.

Most likely, the reserves were pegged to a "global reserve" formula, so one over-achieving lot could compensate for an underperforming one, like the Currin. That formula also saved Richard Prince’s untitled 2003 joke painting, acquired in the year it was made from Barbara Gladstone Gallery, that sold to a telephone bidder for just $212,500 on a $300-400,000 estimate.

Still, that global formula could not save every underperforming lot. Damien Hirst’s uncharacteristic 1993 steel cupboard of ceramic pots, "We’ve got Style (The Vessel Collection-Blue /Green)," estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, died without a single bid. The sculpture was acquired from London’s White Cube gallery in 1994.

Richter was also represented by two small scaled paintings from 1992, "Abstraktes Bild (763-5)" and "Abstraktes Bild (763-9)," that each made an identical $506,500. The former was estimated at $200-300,000 and the slightly larger latter painting at $300-400,000. Both works were acquired by the same telephone bidder, manned by Lisa Dennison, chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America. Dennison, the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, wrote the introduction to the catalogue, hailing Neuberger Berman founder Roy Neuberger for making "art an integral part of the corporate culture of the company."

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