ART

“Variations in Violet and Green,” a landscape by James McNeill Whistler, was sold at auction in New York for $2,585,000, the most ever paid for a Whistler. The previous Whistler record was set in 1983: $74,250 for his “Beach Near Marseilles.” New York art dealers bought “Variations” and a portrait by Thomas Eakins, the latter for $2,420,000, easily breaking the previous record of $240,000 for a work by the Philadelphia portrait painter.