Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire and collector whose company, SAC Capital Advisors, pleaded guilty on Friday to insider trading charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan, was one of the biggest sellers of the night, parting with nearly $87 million worth of art. (The government has not criminally charged Mr. Cohen.)

Top among his group was “A. B. Courbet,” an abstract canvas by Gerhard Richter from 1986. Estimated to bring $15 million to $20 million, it sold to a telephone bidder for $26.4 million. Mr. Cohen had bought the painting at Art Basel in 2012 for around $20 million. He also managed to get $10.9 million for “The Attended,” an abstract canvas by Brice Marden from 1996-99 filled with looping colors of red, yellow, green and white. It had a $7 million to $10 million estimate.

But not all Mr. Cohen’s works performed as well. Warhol’s “Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz)” from 1963, estimated to sell for $20 million to $30 million, fetched $18 million, or $20.3 million with fees. And a work by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan failed to sell at all.

All eyes — including several trustees secreted in a skybox above the salesroom — were on a group of paintings, drawing and sculptures being sold by the Dia Art Foundation. It was selling a portion of its notable collection to pay for a major acquisition, much to the consternation of many, including its two founders, who said that such a sale was “utterly wrong” and “against Dia’s mission.” But on the eve of the auction, the founders withdrew the lawsuit they had filed last week to block the sale. Dia’s win — it managed to raise $38.4 million in the Wednesday night sale — was also its loss. Among the artworks sold were several seminal sculptures by John Chamberlain, including “Candy Andy.” That 1963 work, fashioned entirely out of old car parts, had set the artist on the course of what became his signature method of using mangled fragments of old cars. It had been expected to bring $2 million to $3 million; Christopher Eykyn, the New York dealer, bought it for $4.6 million. Also for sale was Barnett Newman’s “Genesis — The Break,” a 1946 abstract canvas that brought $3.6 million. The audience came alive with bidders when Cy Twombly’s “Poems to the Sea,” a suite of 24 drawings created in 1959, came on the block. Although it was expected to sell for $6 million to $8 million, a phone bidder snapped it up for $21.6 million.

“The Warhol, like the Twombly, were connoisseur works of art,” said Mr. Meyer, the auctioneer. “They are exactly what the market wants: iconic works of 20th-century art history.”