At Least One Auction Exceeded Expectations!

Not all is bleak in the world of art auctions. This just in from MASS MoCA’s director of marketing & PR, Katherine Myers:
Our benefit results were heartening, to say the least. The Sol LeWitt wall drawing donated by Paula Cooper slammed through it’s pre-auction estimate of $150,000, bringing $260,000. A small Crewdson production print attracted lively competition and sold for $28,000. Spencer Finch’s light work sold for $24,000, a small drawing by Matthew Ritchie fetched $22,000, and a Chuck Close lithogragh went for $80,000, all exceeding their estimates by good margins. A small Jasper Johns print went for double its estimate.
A large recent Rauschenberg print skyrocketed past its estimate and sold for $45,000. (It included a studio visit in Captiva, FL, and dinner with the artist.) The evening brought in $960,000 in total for MASS MoCA, which was nearly four times higher than the receipts of last year’s New York benefit. 300 people attended the sold-out evening, 75 more than attended last year.
Does this bode well for next week’s big contemporary sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s? Or did the benefit auction benefit from the Büchel recovery factor?