A Night to Buy Low at Sotheby's

Attention, Sotheby's shoppers. Bargains were plentiful at last night's sale of contemporary art. Of the 77 works offered, only 51 found buyers, and many lots went by without a single bid. The sale totaled $21.3 million, well below Sotheby's estimate of $31.5 million to $40 million. Many works by major artists sold for surprisingly low sums.

"I wasn't surprised by the sale," said Eli Broad, a Los Angeles collector. "Clearly there were cases where the estimates were too high."

Anthony D'Offay, a London-based dealer, said he also thought the auction showed signs of optimism. "But it was a sale where people had to think hard about quality," he said.

Lucy Mitchell-Innes, director of Sotheby's contemporary-art department, said she thought the overall mood was good. "Where we saw unevenness was part of the market still sorting itself out," she said. She also admitted that many artworks sold for reasonable prices. No Record for a Warhol

The evening's star was Andy Warhol's "Marilyn X 100," from 1962, which Sotheby's promoted with its own catalogue. It sold for $3.7 million, not far below the artist's record, $4.07 million paid in 1989 for "Shot Red Marilyn," a 40-inch-square painting from 1964.

The Warhol was one of many works put up for sale by Charles Saatchi, the London-based advertising mogul who has been Sotheby's biggest seller of contemporary art seller for a year. In May he sold 21 works, and last night he was also the mainstay of the sale, offering about $17 million worth of art for sale. Mr. Saatchi has been selling parts of his collection to raise money, since his London-based company, Saatchi & Saatchi, reported losses of $103.3 million last year.