• Andreas Gursky’s seminal “Paris, Montparnasse” (1993), a large-scale C-print in the artist’s frame, sold to another telephone bidder for £1,482,500 ($2,370,814). It last sold at auction at Phillips de Pury & Company New York in November 2005 for $352,000.
• Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Red Joy” (1984), in acrylic, oilstick and Xerox collage on canvas, fully scaled at 86 by 68 inches, when the dealer beat out two telephone bidders for £1,426,500 ($2,281,259) (est. £1.5-2.5 million). The work last sold at Artcurial |Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F. Tajan in Paris in December 2005 for €799,873 ($1,093,906).
• Glenn Brown’s mega-scaled “Ornamental Despair (Painting for Ian Curtis)” from 1994, resembling an outtake from Star Trek, sold after a marathon battle on the telephone for the top lot price of £3,554,500 ($5,684,356) (est. £2-3 million). It last sold at Christie’s London in February 2002 for £332,900, an appreciation of some 100-fold in a tad over a decade.
• Lucio Fontana’s punctured canvas, “Concetto Spaziale” (1960), which sold for £1,594,500 ($2,549,924) (est. £1-1.4 million). The work last sold at Sotheby’s London in June 1990 for £352,000

Glenn Brown, Gursky Lead Sotheby’s Mild but Solid $34-Mil Night (Artinfo)