NEW YORK — An Andy Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor sold for $4 million at Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg auction house, part of a $24.87 million sale that begins the contemporary art season in New York. The Phillips auction, one of three evening sales of contemporary art at New York's leading houses, including Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and Christie's International Plc, brought just below the auctioneer's minimum presale estimate of $24.95 million. Of 46 pieces available, 40 found buyers. Simon de Pury, Phillips' chairman and the evening's auctioneer, described the sale as a "fantastic success." It followed a disappointing Impressionist and modern sale last Monday that produced $7 million, one-seventh of its low estimate of $49.31 million. Among the top 10 sales were Jeff Koons sculptures from 1991 and 1988, a Claes Oldenburg pop art work from 1964 and two paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, the 1980s graffiti-inspired abstract expressionist. "The American market for pop art is still very, very strong," said Michael McGinnis, head of the Phillips' contemporary department. "The '80s work saw a lot of activity — there was no surprise." The Warhol portrait, "Silver Liz," was completed in 1963, the same year Warhol named his Manhattan studio space on East 87th Street "The Factory." It was one of 10 identical panels created for an exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles the same year. Two records were set during the auction. The Oldenburg sculpture, "Light Switches —Hard Version," brought $691,500, within the pre-sale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. The previous record for an Oldenburg sculpture was $574,500. "Stoffbild," a 1969 two-tone painting by Blinky Palermo sold for $464,500, a record for the artist. A 1985 Gerhard Richter landscape painting, "Troisdorf," fetched the second-highest price of the evening, $3.20 million. A Cy Twombly blackboard painting, "Untitled (Bolsena)" from 1969 took third place at $2.87 million. "It's rational, strong," said John Good, an art dealer with the Gagosian Gallery in New York. "Everyone was nervous but I think the contemporary market is alive and well." Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg was created in 2000 when London's Phillips Auction Group joined with an art advisory service owned by De Pury and Daniella Luxembourg. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA owned a majority stake in the auctioneer until May, when the company reduced its share.

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