Art auction tab: $93 million

“We’ve come a long way,” auctioneer Tobias Meyer quipped as bidding for a Mark Rothko painting rose to $15 million Tuesday night at Sotheby’s New York. A couple of suspenseful minutes later, the audience applauded as he sold the classic 1954 abstraction, “No. 6 (Yellow, White, Blue over Yellow on Gray),” for $17.3 million.

After the last crack of the gavel -- dispensing with Duane Hanson’s hyper-realistic sculpture of a delivery man for $209,600 -- Meyer said that he was delighted to have sold $93 million worth of contemporary art and set records for 15 artists. But he confessed disappointment over failing to find buyers for 12 of the 62 pieces offered, particularly “Three Sisters,” German painter Gerhard Richter’s 1965 re-creation of a photographic image, valued at $4 million to $5 million.

The erratic but ultimately successful auction emphasized contemporary art’s continuing strength in the art market. Twenty-four works commanded more than $1 million apiece.