Ten auction records were set at Tuesday night's sale, with new high prices fetched for work by American sculptor Alexander Calder and artist Joseph Cornell.

After a fierce round of bidding, Newman's Black Fire I, a 1961 canvas showing a thick column of black alongside smaller ribbons of white and black, made $84.2m (￡50m), almost double his previous highest price.

Francis Bacon's Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards surged to $80.8m (￡49m), from an opening bid of $50m (￡29.6m).

Created in 1984, it shows the painter's companion, and sole beneficiary of his will, in a relaxed pose sitting on a stool with his right leg crossed over his left knee.

It came onto the market a year after Bacon's 1969 Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4m (￡85.5m) - the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting of a warrior figure was another sought-after piece
Rothko's Untitled, a large abstract oil painting with colours ranging from a silvery mist to a deep violet, fetched $66.2m (￡39m).

It was sold on the same day the artist's Black on Maroon went back on display at Tate Modern, 18 months after being vandalised by graffiti.

And Jean-Michel Basquiat's seminal 1981 painting of a regal warrior figure, which elevated the artist from the underground to the mainstream, sold for $34.9m.

All but four of the 72 lots on offer at Christie's were sold, with bids coming from 35 countries around the world.

"These are incredible statistics," Gorvy said.

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