June 7 (Bloomberg) -- An important, 2,000-year-old Roman bronze of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, brought $28.6 million this afternoon at Sotheby's in New York, becoming both the most expensive antiquity and piece of sculpture from any period to sell at auction.

London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi won the bidding for an unnamed European collector.

``You're not likely to find anything of this quality outside the Louvre,'' Eskenazi said, soon after the gavel went down.

``Artemis and the Stag,'' sold by Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, edged the previous sculpture record of $27.5 million paid in May 2005 for Brancusi's ``Bird in Space'' at Christie's in New York.

It more than doubled the previous antiquities record, held by a Roman marble statue of Venus that sold for $11.6 million at Christie's in London in 2002.

Eskenazi jumped in once bidding went above $12 million, fending off London-based dealer Oliver Forge, who stood in a back corner and raised a finger to signal each $100,000 bid. Forge declined to identify the buyer he represented.

``I tried to bid slowly, and I tried to bid fast,'' said Eskenazi. ``I tried to unnerve him.''

Quadrupled Its Estimate

The heroic yet graceful 36-inch figure, clad in gladiator sandals and a billowing dress, quadrupled its $7 million presale high estimate. Many dealers and curators agreed that the price fit the art.

``The piece is spectacular,'' said J. Michael Padgett, curator of ancient art at Princeton University Art Museum, who attended the sale. ``It's one of the 10 best bronzes in America.''

Carlos A. Picon, curator in charge of the Greek and Roman galleries at New York's Metropolitan Museum, said ``It's worth every penny. It's a great sculpture.''

The Artemis was part of an antiquities auction that included property from various owners as well as 25 works from Albright- Knox. The day's sale tallied a record $47.2 million, nearly four times the $12.1 million presale high estimate.

Albright-Knox has offered 207 artworks and objects to be sold in a series of auctions at Sotheby's this spring. Today's sale brings the Albright-Knox total to $72.8 million. The museum says it will use the proceeds to purchase modern and contemporary art.

Clean Provenance

The Albright-Knox lots at today's auction, which all sold, tallied $40.6 million, far exceeding their $9.3 million high estimate.

``This is an historical sale in terms of quality,'' said dealer Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art SA, who bought an Egyptian marble bust of a goddess (for $360,000), among a number of other pieces.

Dealers said that pristine ownership history made the Albright-Knox works even more desirable, especially at a time when the antiquities field has been mired in legal battles over artworks with murky histories.

Heated bidding from banks with 26 phone bidders and paddle wavers in the room ignited every time something with the Albright-Knox name came up for sale. As in this season's contemporary art auctions, gavel prices often dwarfed presale estimates.

Near Eastern Artifact

The second-costliest work in the sale, also from the Albright-Knox, was an ancient Near Eastern copper figure of a horned man (about 3000-2800 B.C.). Estimated to sell for $250,000, it fetched $3.2 million from New York dealer Robert Haber, who bought the piece for an unnamed U.S. museum.

A black-figure Greek vase from about 560 B.C. that fetched $114,000 (among the least expensive Albright-Knox items) was acquired by Padgett for Princeton's museum. When asked about artworks once held by the Albright and now destined for private collections, Padgett said, ``The best place for these artworks is in a museum.''

At least 25 Albright-Knox representatives attended the sale, watching the action below from a suite of skyboxes.

Tomorrow at Sotheby's New York, Old Master paintings and European works of art estimated at up to $1.6 million finish the Albright sales.

The Albright-Knox sale of major ancient artworks has drawn criticism in Buffalo and elsewhere.

``Very foresighted people were able to bring together things that our own museum was incapable of appreciating,'' said Buffalo resident and Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Dennis. Dennis was among those who formed a group, Buffalo Art Keepers, to prevent the sale. They filed a lawsuit, which was dismissed by the New York State Supreme Court.

Money for Modern Art

``The stunning results of the sale will, for the long term, create a stronger, more stable Albright-Knox that can maintain its position as a world-class museum of modern and contemporary art,'' museum Director Louis Grachos said in a statement. ``As difficult as it has been to give up these much admired works of art for auction, our ability to acquire the best art being created today has now more than tripled.''

``It's another of many sad days,'' said Tom Freudenheim, a Buffalo-born museum professional, now retired. ``Good for the museum that they are going to end up with a zillion dollars to spend on overpriced art.''

(Lindsay Pollock writes on the art market for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writers of this story: Lindsay Pollock at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com.

Last Updated: June 7, 2007 19:34 EDT