(Photo via christies.com)

Christie's predicted it would be an art world 'first' and in some ways, it was. When Lot #42 -- Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House in Palm Springs -- came up at Tuesday's Post War & Contemporary Art sale, the overflow house did sit up and pay attention. They had to. Christie's wonderfully charming auctioneer, Christopher Burge, the Honorary Chairman of Christie's Americas, was forced to bring proceedings to a temporary halt and introduce Kathleen Coumou, the auctioneer from Christie's International Realty. As Burge explained, it was Coumou's responsibility to sell Neutra's famous house; even though Christie's was asking bidders to accept the house as 'art,' as far as New York State was concerned, it remained a real estate transaction.  Dressed all in white, and understandably nervous -- she confessed later she'd never done this in front of such an audience -- Ms. Coumou stepped up. Mr. Burge, now smiling broadly, carried on. Much to the amusement of the audience.

The bidding for Richard Neutra's desert retreat started at $9 million and moved quickly to its minimum reserve price of $15 million. Then the action stalled. Burge allowed it to linger for a little while longer, but it was clear that the bid being phoned in to Joshua Holdeman, the head of Christie's 20th Century Decorative Art & Design department and point person on the sale, would be the highest. Mr. Burge stopped the bidding, and glancing at Ms. Coumou, she brought down the gavel. (Christie's has not released the name of the buyer.)

Afterwards, having fed the press a buffet dinner and as many drinks as they liked -- the contingent now included a real estate reporter from The Wall Street Journal -- Christie's executives proclaimed their strategy of moving highly regarded works of architecture in with the de Koonings and Licthensteins and Gerhard Richters a success. But those in attendance were more impressed by the sale of Lucien Freud's 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,' for $33.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist.

A spokesman for Christie's explained later that "they were over the moon about the Neutra sale," adding, "it's such a good thing for Palm Springs Modernism. To be recognized like this." --DAVID HAY

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