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Despite the incumbent world crisis, Sotheby's sale of contemporary art held on November 9, 2011 in New York was a true success with record prices achieved for Clyfford Still and Gerhard Richter.

The sale totaled $315.8 million, well above its high $270 million estimate and eclipsed Christie's auction held the previous day, where $247.6 million was spent thanks to a record price for Pop Art artist Lichtenstein and good scores for Andy Warhol. Of the 73 lots for sale at Sotheby's, 11 went unsold.

Still's "1949-A-No. 1," a canvas of thick, jagged brush strokes in deep reds and blacks went for $61.7 million, a record price for the artist at auction and well above its $25 million high estimate.

Another painting by Still, "1947-Y-No. 2," a canvas of black, yellow, red and blue that was expected to reach between $15 million and $20 million fetched $31.4 million.

"Abstraktes Bild," a 1997 canvas of pinks and blues by German artist Gerhard Richter fetched a record price for the artist at auction when a telephone bidder paid $20.8 million.

Another work by Richter, "Gudrun," a brightly colored painting from 1987 with red and yellow diagonals, which sold ten years ago for $ 783, 106 at Sotheby's in London brought $18 million, more than twice its high estimate.

Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait," a 1967 triptych depicted against a green background, was sold to a telephone bidder for $19.6 million while Andy Warhol's "Last Supper"" from 1986, sold for $6.5 million to a telephone bidder.

The contemporary art market has been buoyant despite the crisis but it should be recalled that less than 200 buyers have been active beyond the $ 1 million market throughout the world, meaning that they represent the main pillars of the art market which might suffer a severe setback if the planet were to be hit by a deep recession.