The Day Sale brought a total of $54,286,350 (est. $52/73 million) and was 73% sold-by-lot, bringing the total for Contemporary Art sold at Sotheby’s in the past two days to $370,123,350 (overall est. $244/344 million).

Scott Nussbaum, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day sale commented: “I am pleased with today’s sale total of $54,286,350 which met our pre-sale expectations of $51/73 million. Jean Michel Basquiat’s Reok led the auction, selling for $2,154,500 – the highest price achieved for a work in a Contemporary Art Day sale at Sotheby’s New York since May 2008. In addition there were a number of healthy prices for Alexander Calder mobiles, with Yellow Eye, Red Dot fetching $1,106,500 (est. $750/950,000) and the 1954 Untitled realizing $1,070,500 (est. $800,000/1.2 million). Prices for living artists were also strong with Love (Red, Purple) by Robert Indiana comfortably exceeding the high estimate to sell for $1,022,500 (est. $600/800,000) and Georg Baselitz’s Torso Rosa (No. X. 93) doubling the high estimate to fetch $914,500 (est. $350/450,000). I was also thrilled to see over $1 million raised for The Elton John AIDS Foundation thanks to the generosity of Cecily Brown, Jim Hodges, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons and Howard Hodgkin.”