Here, too, the legacy of the art of the absurd invented by Marcel Duchamp is in evidence, albeit in very different fashion. Robert Rauschenberg came next in the succession of world records with "Overdrive." The very large canvas, 213.4 centimeters high, was painted in 1963 in oil and silkscreen ink. The artist, who died at age 30, had a deadpan sense of fun at the expense of the establishment, making him a direct heir to the art of the absurd devised by his French predecessors of the Dada movement. Part of a series dubbed "Achrome" by the artist, its format, 113.5 by 144.5 centimeters, or 44.75 by 57 inches, is larger than most, but otherwise differs little from the other "Achrome" works - folding a canvas and coating it in white kaolin can go just so far, when you attempt to introduce diversity into your creative efforts. At $10.12 million, it exceeded the high estimate by "only" half. Three lots later, it was the turn of a work done in 1958 by Piero Manzoni to rise to world record heights. That display of inventiveness made such a tremendous impression on bidders that they sent it climbing to $23.56 million, nearly triple Sotheby's high estimate. Seen at close quarters, the panel has a slightly grainy texture. Yves Klein coined the cryptic title "MG 9" for the panel that he painted a solid blue around 1962. The next world record price could not have gone to a more different work. Sotheby's expected it to go for $3 million to $4 million, plus the sale charge in excess of 12 percent. Too crude in its facile, almost schoolboyish eroticism to be reproduced in a newspaper intended for the general public, it seemed to have stepped out of a nightmarish version of Walt Disney's world. Titled "My Lonesome Cowboy," the fiberglass and iron character, painted in the garish colors that used to be those of porcelain dolls half a century ago, was produced in 1998, in an edition of three, plus two artist's proofs. The first record, which surprised many in the room, went to a larger-than-life figure of an adolescent standing, legs wide apart and penis erect, handled in video-game fashion by its maker, Takashi Murakami. The six world auction records that were set within the first hour of the two-hour session sum up the bewildering diversity in style, inspiration and even medium that triggered the most furious bidding matches Wednesday night. NEW YORK - In a sensational follow-up to Christie's $348.26 million auction of postwar and contemporary art on Tuesday, Sotheby's sold on Wednesday 73 works of art for $362.03 million.
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