Last night, Christie's auction of postwar and contemporary art hit record numbers, led by sale of the 1961 Mark Rothko painting "Orange, Red, Yellow" for $86.9 million. That payout for the 93" x 81¼" painting shattered the 2007 price paid for the 81" by 55.5" Rothko, "White Center," which David Rockefeller sold for $72.8 million. What recession!?

Christie's had estimated that the 59 paintings sold last night would sell for a high of $330 million, but with works from Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Barnett Newman, and Alexander Calder, the sale brought in $388.5 million, 59-lot sale. Bloomberg News points out, "It exceeded Christie’s $384.7 million tally in May 2007, the previous contemporary auction champ." A New York dealer said, "Billionaires have gone global. It’s very healthy for the market, obviously."

Pollock’s "Number 28" from 1951, sold for $23 million (including fees), which was a record price for a Pollock. And Newman's "Onement V" sold for $22.4 million, well above its $10-15 million estimate and a record for a Newman. The auction also resulted in records for artists, like Gerhard Richter and Alexander Calder. The NY Times reports, "Fresh material from celebrated collections made the difference. But beyond that, as Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s, put it, 'this is the most popular collecting category we have globally, with the richest and deepest number of buyers.'"

Another dealer told Bloomberg News, "I’ve never seen people wanting to shop so badly. People didn’t want to be under-bidders. They wanted to win."