Wool, Judd, Flavin, among the buy-ins as energy peters out, only to be perked up by a Thiebaud sugar rush
First big battle of the night chez @ChristiesInc, for Joan Mitchell's sunny Blueberry--at least six in pursuit--hammers for 14.5m, about 3x estimate
Basquiat's Flexible goes for $40m hammer to bidder on phone with Miety Heiden at @phillipsauction
Disputed Basquiat Flesh and Spirit doesn't find friends, though, fails to clear $30m est with $27m from a single phone bid
Double records for Hockney tonight--for a pool ptg on paper and this 1990 canvas of the Pacific Coast Hwy, hammered down for $25m to Patti Wong's bidder
This 😍Kerry James Marshall masterpiece rightly soars to $18.5 hammer, more than 3x previous record, establishing a new floor for KJM
Bidders were spring-loaded for the Lynette Yiadom-Boakye sold to benefit the Studio Museum. One gent was so startled by the onrush, he dropped his cane #truestory
Two bidders really want this Miro sculpture Personnage. Est $1.5-2.5m, up to $5m and neither has blinked
Amy Cappellazzo and Adam Chinn flashing their bidders' paddle numbers in a jungle sign of aggression in pursuit of David Smith's Land Coaster. Chinn wins it for $5.7m hammer
This Monet's attractive estimate of 1.5-2.5m succeeds in sparking a five-way phone war on the way to $6m hammer
Unique Brancusi portrait of Nancy Cunard, est$70m with a guarantor, with Maria Los at $56m, then Loic Gouzer
Patti Wong hangs back on the much-hyped Modigliani, which perhaps unsurprisingly sells for $139m at hammer on single bid from Simon Shaw. $157m with fees, the highest price ever paid at Sotheby's, Newman announces immediately.
The second-most-notable reclining woman of the evening: @Sothebys auctioneerHelena Newman hammers down Picasso's Le Repos (1932) to Patti Wong of Sotheby's Asia for $32.5m (est $25m/35m).
Record haul for a collection of $646,133,594 on the heavy-hitters of the Rockefeller trove at @ChristiesInc tonight. Breakdown to follow on theartnewspaper.com #rockeseller