May 16 (Bloomberg) -- A Francis Bacon painting smashed the auction record for postwar art last night in New York, fetching $52.7 million. Its reign lasted just 10 minutes, before being trumped by a Mark Rothko work that went for $72.8 million.

Rothko's hot-hued ``White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),'' from seller David Rockefeller Sr., and Bacon's fierce crouching Pope, ``Study From Innocent X,'' helped propel the 74- lot auction at Sotheby's to a record $254.9 million. Before tonight, the highest auction price for an artwork from the period was a $27.1 million Willem de Kooning in November.

``Money has no meaning,'' said Angela Westwater of New York gallery Sperone Westwater, after the Rothko sold. ``It's a good work, but the whole marketplace is crazy.''

Rockefeller, 91, calmly watched the saleroom from a glass- enclosed skybox as five telephone bidders competed for his painting. Below sat 700 swells, including Calvin Klein, hotelier Ian Schrager and former Sotheby's Chairman Alfred Taubman.

Rockefeller has said he will donate the proceeds of the Rothko sale to charity. ``I am very pleased that it did so well,'' he said in a statement. ``I'm sorry to see it go.''

Bacon's pope image also sold to a telephone bidder. The 1962 work, from the artist's series of papal portraits, was estimated to fetch more than $30 million. Meshulam Riklis bought the painting in 1975 and gave it to his daughter, New Yorker Mona Ackerman, who was the seller.

Prince, Rauschenberg

The evening's total, and last week's $619.7 million in sales of Impressionist and modern art by Sotheby's and Christie's International in New York, show the market continues to boom. Prices include a buyer's premium of 20 percent of the hammer price up to $500,000, and 12 percent on the rest.

Last night's sale, more electric than either of last week's, set 15 artist records, including for Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Cecily Brown, John Baldessari and Morris Louis. The previous high of $239.7 million was set in November, 2006, at Christie's International.

Still, not every artist was in demand. None of the three Jackson Pollock drip paintings offered drew any bids.

Mexican art collector and Metropolitan Museum of Art trustee Paula Cussi was identified by two dealers as the seller of the priciest Pollock. Cussi is the ex-wife of the late Emilio Azcarraga Milmo, former chairman of Grupo Televisa SA.

``Number 16, 1949,'' a cascade of reds, yellows, greens and blacks, was estimated to sell for as much as $25 million. The painting was on paper, mounted on Masonite. Sotheby's disclosed ``an ownership interest'' it declined to explain.

Skeletal Grimace

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem sold a powerful 1981 Jean- Michel Basquiat painting of a grimacing skeletal figure for an artist record of $14.6 million, nearly double the high estimate. Proceeds will go to a contemporary art fund at the museum.

Rothko, a major Abstract Expressionist, painted ``White Center,'' in July 1950, soon after he developed his signature floating pools of color. ``White Center'' was influenced by a trip to Italy, where the artist observed the dry, bright pigments used by Renaissance fresco master Giotto, according to Bonnie Clearwater, author of ``The Rothko Book'' and director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Florida.

``Rothko wanted painting to be miraculous for the viewer and for himself,'' Clearwater said. ``They weren't just colors on a canvas but a mirror of modern fragmented times.''

``White Center'' had a presale estimate of more than $40 million, nearly double the artist's previous auction record.

Rockefeller acquired the painting in 1960 for $8,500 (about $59,000 in current dollars) on the advice of Dorothy Miller, former curator of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Rockefeller Allure

``I had gotten a Rothko for him,'' Miller told an interviewer in 1971. ``One of the early ones with lots of color, a beautiful one. He wanted to have it in his office.''

The painting had hung in Rockefeller's office at Chase Manhattan Bank along with a Chinese statue that had belonged to his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of MoMA's founders. Rockefeller was the bank's chairman.

The Rockefeller name was a big factor in the success of the sale, dealers said.

``While it's a spectacular painting, it's clear the allure of having David Rockefeller's painting in your house is going way beyond what you might otherwise consider reasonable,'' said New York dealer Marc Glimcher of PaceWildenstein gallery, which represents the Rothko estate. ``That kind of thing is becoming irresistible to people.''

Another Chance

Disappointed bidders still have an opportunity to buy a Rothko this week. Christie's postwar and contemporary art auction today includes two.

A red and burgundy 1961 work ``Untitled'' has an estimate of as much as $18 million. A pink and orange 1954 canvas, also ``Untitled,'' may fetch $25 million, according to Christie's. The seller, identified in the catalog as ``a distinguished private collector,'' is said by three dealers to be art dealer and former Goldman, Sachs & Co. partner Robert Mnuchin of L & M Arts. Mnuchin bought the painting in 1980 for his private collection.

(Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff write for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are their own.)

To contact the writers of this story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com; Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 16, 2007 03:19 EDT