Untitled (1957), a painting attributed to Ivan Serpa that was one of 10 works withdrawn from the Christie's sale. (Courtesy The Art Newspaper)

Within a week of one another, Christie's and Phillips pulled works from their Latin American sales after doubts were cast on their provenance and authenticity, The Art Newspaper reports. Christie’s withdrew 10 pieces by Brazilian artists from its sale (which took place on May 29 and 30) after various outside authorities on the artists' estates expressed concern about the legitimacy of the works, which all stemmed from the Rio de Janeiro-based collection of Ralph Santos Oliveira. According to Mr. Santos Oliviera, he was selling on behalf of his grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and cannot remember where she purchased the pieces in question. Phillips removed a work by Alfredo Volpi from its Latin American sale on May 23.

If you're into counterfeiting, Brazil is apparently the place to do it. The auction withdrawals point to a loophole in Brazilian law, which does not punish art forgery as a criminal offense. Attorneys representing the estates of several Brazilian artists are looking into getting the government to fix this.

"The fact is this is the 11th hour," Mr. DiCaprio said from the rostrum in a speech about the environment before the sale. "That's why this is called the 11th Hour auction."

Mr. DiCaprio, who visited artists to solicit donations for months before the sale and personally called collectors beforehand, encouraged the room of dealers and celebrities to "bid as if the fate of the planet depends on us." Specialist Loic Gouzer, who helped organize the sale, was similarly severe, choosing to motivate the audience with a modified quote from the movie Zero Dark Thirty, about the importance of killing Osama Bin Laden.

But if the pre-sale was melodrama, the auction itself was comedy. The English-accented auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen regularly ribbed Mr. DiCaprio, who sat in the front row. He pretended to mistake the actor's waving to friends as bids and asked if it was "okay with" him when bids went high. Twice after a winning bid emerged from a heated battle, Mr. Pylkkänen turned away from the winner and said to the room, "Oh, but let's not let him have it!" (This joke went over particularly well with Tobey Maguire.)

Since the full price of artworks donated to charity are not tax deductible for the artist, new records are a major incentive for their participation. Collectors are also a little more inclined to open their wallets for a good cause and are especially willing to do so for Leonardo DiCaprio. Even taking those factors into account, the number of artist records for the evening was impressive. The night saw new highs at auction for Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Dan Colen, Mark Grotjahn, Sergej Jensen, Bharti Kher, Robert Longo, Adam McEwen, Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Peyton, Rob Pruitt, Sterling Ruby and Mark Ryden.

Several of the works featured tigers, since Mr. DiCaprio's first environmental efforts involved doubling the population of the endangered animal in a region of Nepal. Mr. DiCaprio also has a personal affinity for tigers. In the auction preview last week Mr. Gouzer called the animal the actor's "mascot."

Zeng Fanzhi contributed a tiger oil on canvas, and Takashi Murakami offered a work that depicted an elephant, a lion and a tiger mid-roar. Mr. DiCaprio was said to have had input on that work during its creation, and he eventually bought it for $735,000.

"Iunno," said a post-auction Mark Ruffalo, who has worked with Mr. DiCaprio on other environmental projects, of why his fellow actor likes tigers specifically. "He just loves the tigers. And he's made it a point to save them."

An abstract Mark Grotjahn work, Untitled (Standard Lotus No II, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 4401), saw bidding jump from $2 million to $3 million to $4 million in a blink. One of the artist's dealers, Larry Gagosian, eventually won the lot for $6.5 million (all prices include Christie's specially lowered five-percent buyer's premium), after a prolonged battled with Vladimir Doronin, a Russian billionaire who recently broke up with Naomi Campbell.

Another Page Sixer also had his time in the spotlight.The orange pharmaceutical billionaire Stewart Rahr, who chomped on an unlit cigar throughout the bidding, went home with the Longo tiger drawing for $1.6 million, the Pruitt work for $315,000 and the Peyton for $1.1 million, scooping up that last lot by announcing his participation to the room.

"New bidder!" he shouted from his seat several rows back. "One. Million dollars."

Last week during a major auction at Sotheby's, where he bought a Picasso, he could be seen in a skybox with LL Cool J (the two are friends). After he left the room Mr. Rahr—who likes to be called "Stewie Rah Rah" and has a lifetime ban from Nobu after calling a waitress there the c-word—was mobbed by auctions reporters.

"I'm really all about saving the environment now, help the tigers and all that," he told one. "It's really important."

"Excuse me, sir," said Gavin Brown, who'd chased Mr. Rahr to the stairs. "I represent the artist who did the panda piece, and Elizabeth Peyton." He handed him a business card. "Please come and see me."

"Okay, fine," Mr. Rahr said. Though he probably won't anytime soon. "After this I'm headed to Cannes with the boys," he said, meaning Mr. Maguire and Mr. DiCaprio (the three are friends).

Bradley Cooper emerged from the auction speaking buoyant French with Salma Hayek and her husband, François-Henri Pinault, whose family owns Christie's. Mr. DiCaprio also seemed pleased, and slapped an arm around a friend. "That Vlad and Larry thing was crazy, dude!" he declared.

After everyone left, Christie's flacks told journalists that they could probably go ahead and say it was the highest-grossing charity auction ever. It might have been, though in the press release they went with a different superlative: "most important."

Update, 9 a.m.: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this post stated that the auction total was $31.7 million. In fact that was the total hammered, before the five-percent buyer's premium was added.

Update, 11 a.m.: An earlier version misstated the region of the world in which Mr. DiCaprio has doubled the tiger population.

News of the auction was first reported here last month.

The mood was quiet as most lots sold to the phone, usually with only one or two underbidders.

Of the 47 lots offered, three went unsold. As was the case last night at Sotheby's, just one artist record was set. The Christie's record breaker was the cover lot, a circa 1927 Soutine painting of a young pastry chef, which sold for $18 million (all prices include premium). That was just good enough to edge out the artist's previous record of $17.2 million, set at Sotheby's London in 2007.

As at Sotheby's last night, few lots in the Christie's auction went for above estimate, 14 to Sotheby's 19, and most that did go over didn't do so by much.

The one difference from yesterday's affair was a high-profile failure, a 1905 Derain, Madame Matisse au kimono, which was bought in at $13 million, despite being from the usually desirable period of the artist's oeuvre, generally accepted as between 1900 and 1910. The house had tagged it with a $15 million to $20 million estimate.

"We saw strong interest leading up to the sale and things changed at the last minute," Brooke Lampley, the house's head of Impressionist and modern art, said at the press conference afterward. She said Christie's had hope for the painting on the private market.

The sale's total of $158.5 million was safely within its $131.4 million to $190.5 million estimate, though those ranges are calculated before premium so it was a close call.

Early on, one determined collector from France drew attention as he bid on the second lot—La Juive (circa 1907–8) by Amedeo Modigliani—from a seat in the back with an iPhone in his free hand, recording Mr. Rumbler and the whole room chuckling at the scene. He eventually won the painting for $6.84 million.

"It's a very important work to me," he said, declining to give his name, though he did say that he doesn't usually buy at auction. "I wanted to have a souvenir."

Bidding on the phones seemed diverse, judging by the numbers denoting buyers, and at the press conference after the auction Christie's reps said that phone bidders came from 30 different countries, with especially strong interest in Asia.

In the room Steven Platzman, an art advisor from California, picked up a hotly contested Claude Monet, Chemin (1885), for $5.1 million, an Alfred Sisley from 1873, Pommiers en fleurs—Louveciennes, for $2.4 million and Dans la salle à manger by Berthe Morisot (1880) for $483,000. He bought on behalf of clients.

"These are classic Impressionist pictures," he said, of what drew him to the pieces. "All of them new to market out of private collections."

Overall Ms. Lampley said the sale showed the "strength of the middle market."

"It's an educated strong, marketplace," she said, "where people are willing to spend money for artists that don't frequently come to auction."

The auctions continue next week, with the houses's postwar and contemporary sales starting at Sotheby's on Tuesday.

(All auction research courtesy of Artnet)

(Courtesy Patrick McMullan)

Christie's has planned a major philanthropic auction with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation that is estimated to raise between $15 and $20 million to benefit what a leaked promotional item called "compelling environmental projects selected by [the foundation] and Christie's." Early talks had the auction scheduled for May 8 and a source close to the auction said it will reportedly feature work by Mark Grotjahn, Carol Bove, John Currin and Elizabeth Peyton, among others. (Visitors to Ms. Peyton's recently opened exhibition at Gavin Brown's Enterprise may have noticed a portrait of Mr. DiCaprio in the show.)

"The world's forests, oceans and biodiversity provide us with innumerable benefits like oxygen to breathe, clean water to drink, and an abundant food supply," Mr. DiCaprio wrote in a letter to artists asking for donations, on his foundation's stationary, the promotional item mentioned above. "And yet our planet and these vital ecosystems that sustain life are under enormous pressures from modern civilization."

The letter says that Mr. DiCaprio hopes to sell between 10 and 15 works at the auction, though that number may now be closer to 30 (and the date may have also changed). In it, Mr. DiCaprio thanks François Pinault and "my friend [specialist] Loic Gouzer" for their help in organizing the auction. A Christie's representative said it has not yet been decided where the money raised at the auction will go.

Aside from the money raised the night of the auction, Mr. DiCaprio notes in his letter, his partnership with Christie's "will also provide an opportunity to engage some of the wealthiest and most influential individuals around the world on these critical environmental issues." Christie's reportedly plans to waive its auction fees for the event.

Updated 3:58 Updated with a comment by Christie's.

Eva Gonzalès, 'La demoiselle d’honneur,' 1879, estimated $400,000–$600,000, sold $2,546,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s saw unexpected gains and failures last night at their respective Old Masters sales, Albrecht Dürer: Masterpieces from a Private Collection and the evening session of Property from the Estate for Giancarlo Baroni.

At Sotheby’s, the biggest surprise was the runaway success of the evening’s final lot, La Demoiselle D’Honneur (1879), a pastel on canvas portrait of a pensive bridesmaid by Eva Gonzalés (the muse and sole pupil of Édouard Manet). Estimated at just $600,000 on the high end, the piece sold for over $2.5 million, setting a new record for the artist at auction. Meanwhile, the highest estimated lot, The Entombment of Christ (1571-72) by El Greco, fell short of its $1 million presale estimate, though it was still the third-biggest sale of the evening. Of last night’s 69 lots, 43.5 percent exceeded their estimates while 16 percent failed to sell. Results are pending for the second session of Sotheby’s Baroni sale, which started today at 10 a.m. and consists mostly of drawings and antique frames.

Over at Christie’s, Dürer’s famous Rhinoceros (1515) charged past its $150,000 high-end estimate, bringing in $866,500—more than higher estimated lots like St. Eustace (1501), which sold for $722,500, and Melancholia I (1514), which went for $530,500. The biggest flop was Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), which was expected to rake in $500,000 to $700,000, but failed to garner any bids. The $6 million total earnings from the sale landed within the estimated range of $4.6 million to $9.6 million. Read Bloomberg’s report on the Christie’s auction here.

Update, Jan. 30, 5:45 p.m.: The results from the day session of the Property from the Estate for Giancarlo Baroni sale at Sotheby's are in. The auction exceeded its estimates ($8.4 million to $12.1 million), bringing in a total $13,859,634. Of the 214 lots, 69 percent sold. The evening session alone pulled in $11.6 million, surpassing its pre-sale high estimate of $9.4 million, with over 84 percent of lots sold, according to a press release.

Overall, the top lots at the Christie’s Old Masters Week sales are far larger than those at Sotheby’s. The crown jewel of the Christie’s sales is Agnolo Bronzino’s Portrait of a Young Man With a Book, estimated from $12 million to $18 million, which will appear in the Renaissance auction on Jan. 30. That sale will also include Christie’s next biggest lots: Fra Bartolommeo’s The Madonna and Child (estimated at $10 million to $15 million) and Sandro Botticelli’s so-called Rockefeller Madonna (estimated at $5 million to $7 million). The top lot at Sotheby’s, Pompeo Batoni’s Susanna and the Elders, is estimated from $6 million to $9 million—just half of the Bronzino portrait's estimated cost. It will appear in Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture sale on Jan. 31.

“You might want to see what happens after the sale,” said Christopher Apostle, head of Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s, regarding the discrepancy between the two houses. “You can have an expensive lot and not do particularly well with it.” Mr. Apostle added that he often finds it “better to have a deeper sale” with more range and lower-priced lots. Last year at Christie's, the Old Master work with the highest presale estimate (Hans Memling’s The Virgin Nursing the Christ Child, estimated at $8 million on the high end) did not sell at all.

“There are not many people that can buy a $12 million picture. There aren’t many people that can buy a $1 million picture; but there are more,” said Mr. Apostle. During last year's Old Masters Week, Sotheby’s sales totaled about $70 million, while Christie’s brought in $52 million.

Regardless of how the price tag on Susanna and the Elders compares to that of the Bronzino, the painting is nothing to scoff at, according to Mr. Apostle, who called it a “masterpiece” that could “hang on any museum wall.”

“There aren’t a lot of Old Master paintings that become available at this level, and I suppose to some degree we’ve had the good fortune this year of getting maybe a slightly larger group of the very highest end of these pictures in our sale, but [Sotheby's does] as well, it just sort of varies from year to year,” said Alan Wintermute, head of sale in the department of Old Master & early British paintings at Christie’s.

Mr. Wintermute attributed the high value of this year’s Old Masters Week auctions to a variety of factors. “These are particularly good sales,” he said. “Some of that is frankly just luck, things that appear at a certain moment or that we work on for a long period of time that come to fruition” in addition to the overall strength of the market.

In terms of long-term efforts paying off, The Embroiderer by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, estimated from $3 million to $5 million, is a prime example. “We’ve been dealing with the client over a period of some years now,” said Mr. Wintermute. “We really approached her some time ago. It wasn’t that she was reluctant to sell it, but it was a long process to make her feel comfortable that this was the right moment to do it and the right way to do it.” The painting will go up for auction in Old Masters Paintings Part I on Jan. 30 alongside other big lots like Giovanni Paolo Panini's View of the Campidoglio, Rome, also estimated from $3 million to $5 million.

Both Mr.Wintermute and Mr. Apostle observed that collectors are seizing the opportunity to sell. “People are looking at this as a good moment to sell things that they’ve maybe been holding back on,” said Mr. Wintermute. Part of that, they noted, is the security that comes with buying artists with proven enduring value.

“We deal with people who have a long historic record of being valuable,” said Mr. Wintermute, citing artists like Chardin, Raphael and Botticelli. “These are artists who have stood the test of time for centuries, and so people I think have a sense of security in spending money, even pretty large sums of money, to acquire work by those artists.”

Click the slide show above to view the top lots at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The full schedules of their Old Master Week auctions are below:

Sotheby’s: “Property from the Estate of Giancarlo Baroni” (Jan. 29); “Old Masters Drawings” (Jan. 30); “Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture” (Jan. 31 - Feb. 1.); “Old Master and 19^th Century European Paintings and Drawings, Including Porperty from the Estate of Giancarlo Baroni” (Feb. 1 - Feb. 2).

Christie’s: “Albrecht Durer: Masterpieces from a Private Collection” (Jan. 29); “Old Masters Paintings Part I” and “Renaissance” (Jan. 30); “Old Master & Early British Drawings & Watercolors Including an Important Canadian Collection and a Distinguished Private Collection” and “Old Master Paintings Part II” (Jan. 31).

At a press conference after the sale Koji Inoue, head of evening sales for the postwar and contemporary department, called the auction, "four aces across the board."

"It's very difficult to have a strong grouping of Pop Art, cutting edge contemporary, Abstract Expressionism, sculpture and other media," Mr. Inoue said, of the accomplishment.

The sale had an impressive sell-through rate of 92 percent by lot, with just six pieces failing to sell and only five failing to sell within or above their presale estimates. Taken together with the Sotheby’s results of the previous evening, the sale would seem to confirm the strength of the contemporary art market. In setting the highest-ever total at a contemporary auction, Christie's breaks its own record, set this spring at a sale that netted the house $388.5 million. Tonight's sale becomes the second highest in the house's history—its $491 million Impressionist and Modern sale back in November 2006 continues to hold the top spot. Christie’s made $112.9 million over its low estimate of $289.4 million—and that’s all the more impressive in an auction season where neither of the major houses' Impressionist and Modern auctions met their respective low-end estimates.

The top lot, at $43.8 million, was the artwork that graced the catalogue’s cover, Andy Warhol's Statue of Liberty, a two-tone silk screen from 1961 that the house had cheekily marketed with 3-D glasses that came with the catalogue.

The new Basquiat record achieved this evening—$26.4 million for an untitled painting of a fisherman—is the third for the artist this year, indicating his ever-climbing prices. It made $6 million over the latest record set at Christie's London this summer, and represents a 2,600 percent price increase from when the picture last came up at auction at Christie's New York in 1988. The painting sold this evening to Christie’s Chairman of Postwar and Contemporary Development Amy Cappellazzo. Bidding for a client on the phone, she impatiently gestured at Mr. Pylkkänen to bring down the hammer, adding, "Thank you," when he did. Phone bidders won most of the big earners tonight, including the record-setting Jeff Koons Tulips (1995–2004) sculpture positioned outside the house, which sold for $33.7 million with premium. Mr. Koons's previous record was a balloon sculpture that sold at Christie's London for $25.7 million in 2008.

Another of the major lots, a 1981 Andy Warhol silkscreen of Marlon Brando on a motorcycle in The Wild One, saw a spirited 8 minutes of bidding that included Joseph Nahmad and, on the phone with a client, Christie's Chairman Bret Gorvy, who at one point threw out a sheepish $100,000 over $20 million, a bid that elicited a disappointed look from Mr. Pylkkänen and laughter from the room. Mr. Gorvy continued to bid against the Nahmad family, who eventually bought the work for their collection at $23.7 million, with premium.

"It's an absolutely iconic work," said Joseph Nahmad after the sale. "It's such a sexy pose."

And a sexy investment! When the work came up at auction in 1997, at Sotheby's New York, it sold for just $1.7 million, and when it did again in 2003 at Christie's New York it went for $5 million.

An Anselm Kiefer saw bidding from both Larry Gagosian and Thaddaeus Ropac, who both show the artist, playing out on a micro level a larger competition the two had last month in Paris, when they both opened new spaces there with Kiefer shows. Dealer Jack Tilton offered some spirited bidding on a Cy Twombly that eventually sold for $4.4 million at hammer and a Jasper Johns that nearly doubled its high estimate at $1.7 million.

A notable failure was lot 31, a Gerhard Richter from 1983 from the collection of Steven A. Cohen, which failed to sell at $8.8 million. It was notable because the Richter market has been red hot in the past year or so, but also because the sale, overall, was a roaring success.

"Most of the important lots saw five or six or seven or eight bidders," Mr. Pylkkänen said at the post-sale press conference. "This was an exceptional sale."

The fall auction season finishes tomorrow night at Phillips de Pury & Co. All auction research courtesy of Artnet, all images courtesy of Christie's.

New York, still recovering from the presidential election and Hurricane Sandy, had just that afternoon been hit with a slushy, messy mix of rain and snow that continued into the night, and many of the seats in the usually crowded room were empty. A significant 21 lots failed to sell, leading to a lackluster sell-through rate of 70 percent by lot.

Just one artist record was set, for Wassily Kandinsky, whose Studie für Improvisation 8 (1909) sold for $23 million with premium, those proceeds going to fund its seller, an NGO called the Volkart Foundation (works tied to charity historically earn more). The top lot of the auction, Claude Monet's Nymphéas (1905) was also backed by philanthropy, the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., which was bequeathed the painting by Ethel Strong Allen, widow of Wall Streeter Herbert Allen Sr. That work went for $43 million, through specialist Adrien Meyer. Though The New York Times astutely pointed out that the painting might be "catnip" for new collectors in Russia and the Middle East, Christie's listed the buyer as a private collector in the U.S.

There were good artworks to be had if you knew what you wanted. David Nahmad, of the art dealing and collecting Nahmad family, picked up Georges Braque's La caisse verte (1959) and Joan Miro's Personnages et oiseau dans la nuit (1944) for below or near the low estimate, respectively. London dealer Ivor Braka picked up a Gustave Caillebotte, Le Place Saint-Augustin, temps brumeux (1878) near the low estimate for $2.7 million with premium and a Camille Pissarro, Hameau aux environs de Pontoise (1872), for $4.3 million, just over the high estimate.

Mr. Rumbler, the auctioneer, seemed impressed at the dealer's continued bidding on that piece and, in the lull that hangs between bids, Mr. Braka commented to the room, "We've been waiting a long time for something this good to come up" for the artist, implying he could wait a little longer.

Bidding in the room was sleepy, but the phone banks were active. The record-setting Kandinsky sold after a leisurely phone battle between Christie's specialists, who took two minutes of back and forth to reach the picture's low estimate. Dealer Roger McIlroy bought a Constantin Brancusi, Une muse, (1912) originally crafted for the Armory for "an international collector" on his cell phone at $12.4 million with premium. The piece, which was at one time on view at the Guggenheim Museum, last sold at Christie's in 1986, for just $880,000.

Dealer David Nisenson said after the auction that he thought Christie's had fared well, given the circumstances.

"I've heard some people suggest that, with the drop off we've seen in the stock market since the election, a lot of the Wall Street types might be holding onto their money as they wait to see what Obama's going to do," he said. "Personally, I think that's ridiculous."

Asked, at the press conference, what effect Sandy and the election may have had on the night's results, Brooke Lampley, head of the Impressionist and Modern department, said, "None whatsoever."

"Interest only grew today," she said, "as it always does as we head into the sale,"

"It was remarkable to be getting e-mails from around the world for condition reports and such during Sandy," she added. "I was at home, without power, e-mailing back, 'Yes, I will, as soon as I get into the office.' Then, of course, people would write back, 'Oh, please, yes, of course, make sure you're safe first.

"'Then, though, please do send me the condition report.'"

The major biannual evening auctions continue tomorrow night, with Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale.

All auction research courtesy of Artnet. All images courtesy Christie's. All prices in slideshow listed with auction house premiums.

While the creation of the sculpture might be over, Mr. Koons is nonetheless still hard at work on crafting and maintaining his image. Despite having a broken wrist, which was in a cast (the result of a horseback-riding incident), he was charming and upbeat, much like a professional model, seeking the best angle, variously standing or sitting, feigning at turns surprise and conviviality, and even giving us some pointers: “Come around from here," and, "I can stand over there.”  Mr. Koons once again proved that he is his own greatest creation.

Woodham. (Courtesy Christie's)

Christie's has just announced that it has named Doug Woodham the president of Christie's Americas. The former president, Marc Porter, who took on the new position of international head of private sales, will continue his role as chairman of Christie’s Americas.

For the last 20 years, Mr. Woodham has worked at the crossroads of finance, technology and business transformation, holding positions at UBS Wealth Management and Moody’s KMV.

He’s also no stranger to the arts, having held, for the past two years, the role as co-chair of the American Fellows patron program at the Whitney Museum. He helped the museum develop a financial plan for funding its $750 million Renzo Piano-designed future home in the Meatpacking District that is scheduled to open in 2015.

Mr. Woodham's new job will have him reporting directly to Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy.

“Doug Woodham’s long-standing interest in the arts married to his professional experience and business acumen will make him an invaluable leader at Christie’s,” said Mr. Murphy in a statement. “This combination puts him in an ideal position to represent this region during a period of tremendous growth in the art market.”