Christie’s held a charity auction in Paris last night. Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn uses the prices–which had not buyer’s premium because Christie’s waved it for the charity–as a gauge of the market. The sale made €4.6m against a €3m high estimate. The story homes in on the Chapman brothers whose work in the sale went for a number far below their recent art fair asking prices. Many of the works sold within estimate or below, including the top lot. Here’s Reyburn (re-arranged by us):

Hirst’s 2008 butterfly painting of a skull, “Golgotha,” sold for 500,000 euros, as did Koons’s 1999 mirror painting, “Goat (Blue).” The Hirst, with a low estimate of 600,000 euros. [ . . . ]

The cheapest lot was a 2008 digital painting by Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima, which sold for a hammer price of 6,000 euros against a low estimate of 10,000 euros. [ . . . ] The priciest item was Serra’s 1987 “Backstop (to Thurman Munson),” a 12-foot, 5- inch-high diamond-shaped sculpture made from two rectangular steel plates, which fetched a hammer price of 700,000 euros, against a presale low estimate of 1 million euros.

What Reyburn doesn’t tell you is that the best sale of the evening was Rudolf Stingel’s untitled silver 2007 painting that was estimated at between €300-400,000 but sold for €520,000. That’s a strong vote of confidence for a painter who many feared was being set up a year ago for a market beating. (Though Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina isn’t too fond of his current show.)

Koons, Hirst Works Sell in 4.6 Million-Euro Paris Charity Sale (Bloomberg)