By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Lucian Freud, the 85-year-old flesh- and-flab-loving British painter, became the world's priciest living artist at auction last night when his graceful portrait of a 280-pound civil servant named Sue fetched $33.6 million at Christie's International in New York.

The 1995 Freud was one of eight records smashed in an exuberant sale featuring the male clique of auction stars that includes Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Richard Prince. Tom Wesselmann, Prince, Sam Francis and Adolph Gottlieb also fetched new highs.

"Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,'' Freud's life-size, 7-foot- long painting of Sue Tilley curled up on a ratty sofa, was estimated to sell for $25 million to $35 million. The overall 57-lot sale tallied $348.3 million, the second- highest total for the category and closer to the top of the $282 million-to-$398.6 million presale range. Just three lots didn't sell and Americans took home 70 percent of works sold. It was as if buyers were oblivious to talk of recession and remnants of the credit crisis in the world outside the Rockefeller Center salesroom.

"Defying gravity tonight,'' said billionaire Eli Broad as he stepped out of the salesroom, accompanied by wife Edye, and Joanne Heyler, director of the Broad Art Foundation. The top lot was a 1952 Mark Rothko painting, with red bands on a yolk-yellow background, that fetched $50.4 million. Estimated to sell for about $40 million, it rode the Rothko wave that began a year ago, when David Rockefeller sold a pink-and- yellow canvas for a record $72.8 million at Sotheby's.

As the salesroom cleared, The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger spotted Michael Ovitz in the crowd.

"I haven't seen you since St. Barts,'' Goldberger declared, sidling up to Ovitz. ``But you had a beard then.'' Other bold-faced collectors included real estate developer Aby Rosen, lanky plastics magnate Stefan T. Edlis and perennially tanned fashion designer Valentino Garavani. "The very important went very high,'' Valentino said. Christie's didn't miss any marketing angles. The firm's billionaire owner Francois Pinault hosted a dinner Monday night honoring Jeff Koons. In November, Koons's 3,500-pound, hot-pink, stainless-steel ``Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)'' sold for $23.6 million at Sotheby's New York , establishing him at the time as the priciest living artist at auction.

In an unusual move, Christie's tapped the boom market for contemporary art in offering a famous mid-century home, the Richard Neutra-designed "Kaufmann House.'' The five-bedroom house in Palm Springs , California , fetched $16.8 million, near the low end of $15 million-to-$25 million estimate. After the sale, the anonymous phone bidder exercised an option to purchase an orchard parcel, one third of an acre for an additional $2.2 million. Christie's sale was the first postwar and contemporary auction of the week. Sotheby's auction, starring a Bacon triptych expected to fetch about $70 million, is tonight. Phillips de Pury & Co. follows on May 15.

Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas , said while the top end of the contemporary market is for the super rich, it's broad.

"The misconception is that it is just hedge fund people,'' he said. ``The fact is buyers are in every segment of international business.'' Enviable returns studded the sale. Bacon's 1976 ``Three Studies for Self-Portrait'' fetched $28 million. In 1999, the somber twisted portraits sold for $2.9 million at Christie's in London and six years later made $5.2 million in New York .

Prince's campy "Nurse'' series paintings went for less than $100,000 five years ago. Last night, "Man-Crazy Nurse #2'' went for $7.4 million. The seller was television producer and MoMA trustee Douglas S. Cramer. Hedge fund titans Steven Cohen and Daniel Loeb are among Prince's devotees. "I would've expected a correction by now,'' said Broad. "It's just a question of when.''

Warhol dominated the field with eight lots. A spare black 1966 silkscreen "Double Marlon,'' using a film still from Marlon Brando's bad-boy "Wild One'' film, fetched $32.5 million, more than a $30 million estimate. In 1992, the work sold for $935,000 at Sotheby's in New York .

San Francisco film producer and punk rocker Henry S. Rosenthal sold a 1962 Warhol "Campbell 's Soup Can (Pepper Pot),'' which he said his father bought in 1962 for a few hundred dollars. For the last 30 years, the painting has hung in Rosenthal's warehouse in San Francisco 's skid row. Last night, it fetched $7.1 million. "It was a difficult decision to sell,'' said Rosenthal, 53. "But as the painting became absurdly valuable, it became more nerve-wracking to keep it.''

Gerhard Richter's 1987 riff on abstraction, the yellow, blue and red "Abstraktes Bild (625)'' sold for $14.6 million. The 13- foot-wide canvas fetched $3.4 million five years ago at Christie's in New York . "There is no recession in the art market,'' said Norman Rau, collector and president of Sandusky Radio. ``I wish traditional media was this good.''

Last week, Christie's and Sotheby's held impressionist and modern art auctions. Overall the two weeks of sales were projected to total up to $1.8 billion. Sale prices include a buyer's commission of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $20,000, 20 percent of the price from $20,000 to $500,000, and 12 percent above $500,000. Estimates do not include commissions.

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Francis Bacon's three-panel painting of a headless man devoured by vultures sold for $86.3 million in New York last night, smashing the auction record for contemporary art and defying predictions of a recession. The sale drew an array of solvent swells, including former Paine Webber Group chairman Donald Marron and Blackstone Group Vice Chairman J. Tomilson Hill III. The $362 million auction was the New York company's biggest ever and beat its $356.7 million high estimate for the 83 lots.

"There are fewer people in the market,'' said Paul Gray of Chicago's Richard Gray Gallery. ``But those who are in have plenty of confidence, exuberance and lots of dough.'' Eight lots went for more than $10 million. Records fell for 18 artists from around the globe, including Yves Klein, Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner and Takashi Murakami, who attended the sale carrying a designer camouflage tote bag. Ten lots failed to reach Sotheby's minimum price and didn't sell.

On Tuesday night, Christie's International pulled in $348 million for 26 fewer lots, $14 million less than Sotheby's total. Sotheby's shares rose 11 percent yesterday, their biggest jump in more than two years, in expectation of a buoyant evening. Phillips de Pury & Co. holds its contemporary auction tonight. Sotheby's previous record for its top sale was $315.9 million at a November 2007 contemporary auction.

Murakami's buck-naked, 8-foot-tall "My Lonesome Cowboy,'' inspired by a Japanese video game hero with a swirling semen lasso, fetched more than five times its $3 million low estimate. At $15.2 million, it may be the most expensive ejaculation ever auctioned. (A Sotheby's spokeswoman said that's one category they don't track.) Accessories around the salesroom included a straw cowboy hat, a neck tattoo and four-inch designer heels. Dealer Larry Gagosian managed to make gum chewing and granny gl**** look cool.

"A successful auction takes two things: money and testosterone,'' said Chicago collector Stefan Edlis, outfitted in a black leather jacket. The trophy Bacon, "Triptych, 1976,'' was inspired by Greek mythology and the artist's angst. Oozing amorphous figures represent the bleak view of Bacon, who died in 1992. His previous record was $52.7 million, set at Sotheby's New York last year, for a swirling, red, Pope-like figure in the 1962 "Study for Innocent X.''

Bidding for the Bacon opened at $60 million, not far off the $70 million estimate, indicating Sotheby's confidence. The race narrowed to two contestants, represented over the phone by Oliver Barker from the London office and Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby's Asia.

The room was hushed as bids rose mostly in million-dollar steps. At $76 million, auctioneer Tobias Meyer looked at Wong. "Be brave!'' he exhorted. Wong laughed and offered $76.5 million, her client's final effort.

"Is he sure?'' Meyer asked. ``Even if I beg?''

Wong's client was done. An unidentified European collector, on the phone with Barker, prevailed.

The evening's biggest casualty was Mark Rothko, whose 1956 "Orange, Red, Yellow'' drew not a single bid. Estimated to sell for more than $35 million, it was especially painful for Sotheby's, which said it "owns the lot in whole or in part or has an economic interest in the lot equivalent to an ownership interest.'' On Tuesday, the top lot at Christie's was another yellow- and-red Rothko, which sold for $50.4 million. Rothko's 1950s ``White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)'' held the previous record for priciest contemporary work sold at auction, fetching $72.8 million last year at Sotheby's in New York.

Sotheby's sale got a lift from 33 lots from the Lauff Collection, totaling $96 million, more than double the $47 million estimate. "Provenance and quality,'' art adviser Thea Westreich said, explaining their success. With a juice and bottling fortune, German collectors Helga and the late Walther Lauffs bought major minimalist, Pop and conceptual artworks in the 1960s and 1970s. They purchased under the direction of Paul Wembers, the influential director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, Germany. The collection was formerly on loan to the museum.

Sotheby's guaranteed the collection, promising the seller an undisclosed amount regardless of the outcome of the sale. (New York dealer David Zwirner is also selling a large chunk of Lauff works.)

A reflective 1962 Yves Klein "MG 9,'' with mottled gold leaf, was the evening's second-highest lot, fetching a record $23.6 million. Klein's "IKB 1'' in his trademark electric blue, made $17.4 million. Private dealer Philippe Segalot bought both. Robert Rauschenberg's oil-and-silkscreen 1963 canvas of images of New York stop signs and office buildings fetched a record $14.6 million, just below the $15 million presale high estimate. The artist died on Monday at age 82.

Bansky, the fashionable London street artist, turned out to be not quite so hot on canvas. Last night marked his first appearance in a Sotheby's New York evening sale. Four quaking cloaked figures, on their knees, pray and prostrate to a red sign announcing "Sale Ends Today.'' Estimated to fetch up to $800,000, the painting didn't sell. Prices include a buyer's commission of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $20,000, 20 percent of the price from $20,000 to $500,000 and 12 percent above $500,000. Estimates do not reflect commissions.