vryadli

Additionally, Sotheby's had the two top achievements of the auction world in 2006: the year's highest price at auction with the sale in London of Canaletto's Venice, the Grand Canal ($32.5 million) and the world auction record price for Contemporary Art with the sale in New York of David Smith's Cubi XXVIII ($23.8 million)

...in 2005. Auction results in the emerging markets of China and Russia saw worldwide sales up dramatically in those categories (by 74% and 166% respectively)

Picasso's Dora Maar

au Chat, one of the most important portraits of his mistress, has not been seen on the market for forty years and is estimated to bring in excess of $50 million**."
....
The London Contemporary sales the same week also brought extraordinary results with the evening sale attaining the highest total ever for a London Contemporary sale at Sotheby's. The sales brought an impressive $71.0 million, up 69% from the prior year and well above the high estimate of $56.2 million**. British artists triumphed, with
Freud,
Francis Bacon
and Sir Anthony Caro (эт скульптор), among others realizing outstanding prices. Lucien Freud's portrait of Bruce Bernard (Seated) was the top lot of the sale with $6.2 million.

In New York in January, the Old Masters Paintings sales totaled $74.8 million, the highest total ever for a series of Old Master Paintings sales in New York. Strong prices were garnered for works by Rembrandt, Jan van Huysum, Donatello, Willem van de Velde, Francisco Goya, William Blake, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Bernardo Bellotto, among others. Highlights were a Dutch still-life by Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a Terracotta Pot, which sold for $7.3 million, and Rembrandt's Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet which brought $4.3 million.
...
Also in New York, last month, Sotheby's sold the world's most expensive photograph at auction, Edward Steichen's The Pond-Moonlight, which sold for $2.9 million
....
iWillem de Kooning, Untitled XVI from 1975. For some time, de Kooning focused on sculpture and drawing, but in 1975 he ended this long period of abstinence from painting and produced twenty large-scale canvases of explosive, vibrant color executed in lush, sensuous paint strokes, all in the space of six months. This particular canvas, Untitled XVI, is estimated to sell for $6.5/8.5 million**.
....
On April 26th in New York, Sotheby's will be holding a combined Russian Paintings and Works of Art sale, featuring works by Boris Kustodiev, Robert Falk, Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky and Aleksei Bogolyubov, which is expected to achieve in excess of $30 million**(не общая сумма продажи).

И как-то так выходит, ссылки на некоторых помянyтых художников.