Andy Warhol "Mao portfolio" sold for $938,500 at Phillips de Pury & Co.

A new evening print sale held yesterday at Phillips de Pury’s swank uptown branch totaled $3.6 million, focusing on modern and contemporary works by blue chip names. Seventy-six percent of lots found buyers.

The sale’s top lot was a 1972 portfolio of ten screenprints of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong, co-published by Leo Castelli and Multiples. The set was estimated to sell for over $600,000 and made $938, 500. The seller was an unnamed Denver based collector.

Other strong sellers included Bruce Nauman’s 1985 neon Double Poke in the Eye II, from an edition of 40, initially produced as a benefit for the New Museum. Estimated to sell for over $200,000, the Nauman brought $290,500. Ellen Gallagher’s 2002 Bouffant Pride, estimated to sell for above $20,000, sold for $32,500.

An abstract, Japanese inspired black and white 1971 Willem de Kooning lithograph, Untitled (Bather I) given by the artist to a favorite waitress at an East Hampton luncheonette, sold for $17,500, topping the $15,000 estimate. The piece was signed “To Concetta with Love.”

Ellen Gallagher "Bouffant Pride" 2002 sold for $32,500 at Phillips de Pury & Co.

Bruce Nauman "Double Poke in the Eye II" sold for $290,500 at Phillips de Pury & Co.