Scott Reyburn sums up last night’s sale at Sotheby’s with this succinct estimation:

“There are new buyers in the market,’’ London-based dealerStephen Friedman said. “There was a lot of bidding from Russia and Asia, some not very discriminating. Tonight did include some good pieces. Overall, demand was strong.’’

Alina Davey, who works in Sotheby’s London-based client services department, dealing with Russian clients, was a frequent telephone bidder. She bought a 1987 Christopher Wool painting for 409,250 pounds and a 2004 Takashi Murakami painting, “Skulls Rock” at 493,250 pounds. A 3-foot-high bronze version of Antony Gormley’s 1997 “Angel of the North” fetched 623,650 pounds.

For the Russian side of the equation, Judd Tully made these spots:

Gerhard Richter‘s very large, Ab-Ex styled “Abstraktes Bild” (1990) (est. £5-7 million) took top lot honors, selling to the telephone for $11.5 million (£7.2 million).[…] The successful telephone bidder was handled via Sotheby’s Patti Wong, the Hong Kong-based chairman of Sotheby’s Asia — making it a good bet that her buyer came from that part of the world.

The same telephone bidder (bearing paddle number 40) also bought German photographer Thomas Struth‘s cibachrome museum visit composition “Alte Pinakothek, Self-Portrait” (2000). Part of an edition of ten, the Struth was estimated at £200-300,000, and ended up going for  $674,716 (£421,250).

Tully was also keeping tabs on Jose Mugrabi:

Jose Mugrabi, the king of the Warhol market, calmly nailed lot 41, Warhol’s “Jackie” (est. £400-600,000) for $751,598 (£469,250), as well as lot 47, “Four Dollar Signs” (est. £400-600,000) for $1.1 million (£713,250). […]  Mugrabi also bought the unusual Tom Wesselmann landscape of a VW Beetle chugging along a highway, titled “Landscape #1” (1964), for $713,157 (£445,250).

Protest Disrupts $72 Million Auction as Warhol Marilyn, Flower Seeds Sell (Bloomberg)

At Sotheby’s London, Richter, Warhol, and Munoz Fetch Millions in “Orgy of the Rich” (Artinfo.com)