Works by the likes of Rockwell and Russell helped push Sotheby's auction of American art well above its estimated total on Wednesday in New York. While 10 of 62 lots went unsold, several lots went wildly above estimate, bringing the sale total to $28 million, in excess of its high estimate of $24 million.

Works by artists William Keith and C.M. Russell fetched more than 10 times their low estimates. New record prices were set for Keith, Milton Avery and Irving Ramsey Wiles.

Featuring a range of American art from the 19th and 20th centuries, the sale's marquee lot was John Singer Sargent’s 1903 painting Marionettes, estimated at $5,000,000-7,000,000. With fees, it brought in just over the low estimate to fetch $5,205,000.

Prime examples by top American artists brought hefty prices. Of note, Norman Rockwell sold well across the sale, with six of his paintings totaling $6.5 million, more than double the overall presale estimate of $3 million. Seven bidders vied for He's Going to be Taller than Dad, from 1939, which fetched $2.6 million with fees, well above its $500,000 low estimate.

The work of another key American illustrator, Maxfield Parrish, went high with "Wyknen, Blynken and Nod" fetching $845,000 from an estimate of $200,000-300,000.

American modernists performed very well, with a few exceptions. Milton Avery's bold and vibrant Music Makers (estimate $1,000,000-1,500,000), a 1946-47 work from the Estate of Veronique and Gregory Peck, doubled its high estimate to bring $2,965,000 (with fees). The artist's previous record price at auction was $2.5 million, from a 2007 sale.

A gouache by Max Weber, Soloist at Wanamaker's, brought $112,500 from a low estimate of $15,000.

One casualty of the modernist part of the sale was George Bellow's "Sunlit Surf." With an estimate of $300,000-500,000, the rollicking seascape found no buyer.

Also, modern works by Arthur Dove and Philip Evergood went unsold, but bold examples by Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Stuart Davis, both consigned by museums, went above their high estimates. MacDonald-Wright's Trumpet Flowers garnered $785,000 from a low estimate of $400,000. The painting was sold by the Museum of Modern Art to benefit the acquisitions fund, and was purchased by another East Coast museum.

Also featured were several significant examples of Western Art, including Frederic Remington’s Call the Doctor (estimate $1,000,000-1,500,000) sold by the Art Institute of Chicago, which brought $1,085,000.

A big Western art performer was Charles M. Russell's tiny, 5 1/4-inch-high bronze An Enemy that Warns which catapulted to $437,000 from a low estimate of $40,000.

An early, sweeping scene of Yosemite Valley by William Keith, a friend of naturalist John Muir, also soared, bringing $755,000 from a $70,000 low estimate. The 1876 landscape far exceeded the artist's previous auction record of $192,000.

Also bringing $755,000 was an exquisite landscape titled November by Pennsylvania impressionist Daniel Garber. The painting had been acquired from the artist by the consignor's family in 1938.

Christie's will hold its American art auction on Thursday, May 23, 2013.