Onward & Upward

Given the volatility of the stock market and the tremors shaking the dollar, the art market today lures ever more investors. And Sotheby's of London stands ready to meet the demand. In a three-day sale last week, the world's top auction house knocked down 388 impressionist and modern paintings, drawings, and sculptures, including 34 Picassos, nine Klees, 13 Rodins, nine Legers, seven Pissarros, seven Juan Gris. Total gross: $5,374,479.60, or half again the previous record for a single auction, set by Manhattan's Parke-Bernet Galleries (a Sotheby affiliate) earlier this month.

Among the new record breakers: Paul Klee's 1936 Suedische Garten, formerly owned by Architect Mies van der Rohe, which went for $86,400; and Jean Dubuffet's 1947 Il Flute sur la Basse, which brought $48,000. Highest bid was $300,000 for Picasso's oval-shaped 1912 cubist painting La Pointe de la Cite. Second most expensive picture was Georges Braque's Homage `a J. S. Bach from the same period, which was bought for $276,000 by Manhattan Dealer Sidney Janis, who last January gave his first ($2,000,000) art collection to Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art, and now may be starting all over again.

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