Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby's sold 68 percent of the art it offered last night in New York, its lowest selling rate for a multiple-owner evening auction of contemporary work since November 1994.

The 63 lots totaled $125.1 million, short of the low estimate of $202.4 million and about a third of the tally of its comparable auction in May.

``It's a half-price sale,'' said Eli Broad, a 75-year-old billionaire who'd predicted for years that prices would fall. ``Things are a little more reasonable.''

Broad bought four works. They included Ed Ruscha's 1969 mustard-hued painting ``Desire'' for $2.4 million, 40 percent under the $4 million low estimate.

Actor Steve Martin and Blackstone Group Vice Chairman J. Tomilson Hill III were among the collectors witnessing how the contemporary-art market was faring with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index off about 40 percent this year.

Some dealers were relieved, after Sotheby's main impressionist sale last week sold 64 percent of its lots.

``It wasn't so bad,'' said Marc Glimcher of PaceWildenstein. ``That's the overwhelming feeling.''

Unsold Lichtenstein

The evening got off to a strong start. John Currin's 1999 ``Nice `n Easy,'' depicting two nude young women, went to an anonymous telephone bidder for a record $5.46 million. The seller was Los Angeles television executive Dean Valentine. Currin's previous auction record of $847,500 was set at Christie's International four years ago with a painting of two men making pasta.

The evening's marquee lot, Roy Lichtenstein's 1963 ``Half Face With Collar,'' attracted no bids. The archetypical pop-art painting, featuring a businessman tugging at his collar, sported a $15 million to $20 million presale estimate.

Broad gave paddle No. 434 a workout, buying a large orange Donald Judd aluminum and Plexiglas sculpture for $1.1 million and a small Robert Rauschenberg painting for $2.6 million. For the Broad Art Foundation, he bought Ruscha's ``Desire'' and a gaudy Jeff Koons sculpture for $2.2 million.

Prices include a buyer's premium, or commission, of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $50,000, 20 percent of the price from $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent above $1 million. Estimates don't include commissions.

Fuld Collection

Designer Valentino Garavani, tanned and in the front row, scored two Andy Warhol paintings and a Joan Mitchell canvas with little competition. He'd been outbid in the May sales. Gap Inc. founder Donald G. Fisher bought a glossy Gerhard Richter for less than the low estimate.

Christie's holds its contemporary auction tonight, featuring Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard S. Fuld Jr.'s drawing collection, estimated to bring in about $20 million. Works by younger artists go under the hammer on Nov. 13 at Phillips de Pury & Co.

Last night's top lot was French painter Yves Klein's 1960 blue, roughly surfaced, 6 1/2-foot-tall ``Archisponge (RE11)'' which has 13 sponges and dozens of pebbles affixed to the canvas. It sold for $21.4 million, below its $25 million estimate, to an anonymous phone bidder.

Guaranteed Guston

Museum of Modern Art trustee Donald L. Bryant Jr. sold Philip Guston's 1954-55 flesh-toned ``Beggar's Joy'' for $10.2 million, almost a third below its $15 million estimate. He'd paid $1.6 million in 1996 at Sotheby's in New York. According to the catalog, the seller was given a guaranteed minimum price.

Sotheby's anticipated that the auction wouldn't sell a number of lots. As in last week's impressionist auctions, sellers locked in guarantees months earlier. Last week, Sotheby's projected in its third-quarter earnings statement that it would book $17 million in losses from guarantees to sellers at this week's contemporary sale.

Demand for recently fashionable artists such as Richard Prince, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami thinned.

``It's a buyer's market,'' said Josh Baer, publisher of the Baer Faxt, an art market newsletter.

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

Last Updated: November 12, 2008 11:45 EST