ABOVE: detail of David Smith’s CUBI XXVIII (1965), which became the most expensive piece of contemporary art ever sold at auction on Wednesday night, when Sotheby’s brought the hammer down for $23.8 million.

It seems like only yesterday that we were talking about record prices for postwar art. Wait—we were just talking about it yesterday. Only one day after a Christie’s auction set a number of auction records for post-war and contemporary art, the yang to their ying, Sotheby’s, topped them by taking the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of contemporary art. David Smith’s CUBI XXVIII was sold to the svengaliesque dealer Larry Gagosian for a hair-peeling $23.8 million, close to double the sculpture’s already high estimate of $12 million.

The New York Times described the evening as “lifeless,” saying that the crowd seemed kind of tired, although they could just be breathless and spent from the orgy of wallet-emptying the night before at Christie’s. But still, there were some other notables: Cy Twombly’s Untitled (New York City) set a record price for a Twombly work, at $8.6 million. And, in a sale that probably says everything you need to know about the current ludicrous hotness of the art market, an Alexander Calder maquette—not the actual mobile, just the maquette—sold for $1.4 million. Ten years ago, the actual mobile—which is big enough to receive radio signals from Calcutta—went for only $1.08 million. Two words to the owner of the real mobile: sell now.

LINK: New York Times > $23.8 Million Steel Sculpture Sets Another Auction Record