Christie's May 10 evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art realized $318,388,000 with sell-through rates of 87% by lot and 91% by value. The sale established 6 new world auction records for artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Agnes Martin, Mike Kelley, Richard Prince, Kerry James Marshall and Barry X Ball. 

The sale attracted registered bidders from 39 countries, with strong bidding from Asia, Europe and the United States, Christie's stated. Asian buyers accounted for about 20 percent of the sales total, said Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s president and the evening’s auctioneer.

Yusaku Maezawa, a billionaire Japanese online retailer, won Basquiat’s 1982 canvas depicting a horned devil’s head with streams of red, green and black paint, for an artist auction record of $57.3 million, reports Bloomberg, adding that Maezawa was the buyer of a sculpture by Jeff Koons, a painting by Richard Prince, an Alexander Calder mobile and a light piece spelling “Eat War” by Bruce Nauman for more than $80 million.

Other star lots went to single bidders including Mark Rothko’s 1957 painting “No. 17” which fetched $32.6 million, from an estimate of $30 million to $40 million.

Clyfford Still’s abstract painting “PH-234" went to one phone bidder for $28.2 million.

Joan Mitchell’s 1969 abstract painting went above the $7 million high estimate to $9.8 million.