Phillips de Pury & Co. led off the week of contemporary auctions with a “white glove” performance, meaning all of the 50 lots offered sold from the single-owner collection of German Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.

The Monday evening sale tallied $7,498,000 and comfortably hurdled the $7 million high estimate.

Studded with works from the 1980s to paintings and sculpture made just last year, the Punk Princess, as she was affectionately coined by the press during those go-go years, proved to be a credible tastemaker.

Though nothing hit a million dollars and plenty of empty seats were evident in the Chelsea salesroom, aggressive and steady bidding elicited a feel-good atmosphere for the spate of upcoming evening sales.

Top Five Prices

Lot 21 Paul McCarthy, Santa Long Neck, $856,000 (est. $500-700,000)

This madcap painted bronze from 2004 is a ghoulish affair, standing 106 ¼-inches high and menacing enough to scare the living daylights out of most tykes still young enough to believe in Santa Claus. A trio of bidders chased the creepy and bearded figure to a new record price for the artist, shattering the old mark of $299,200 set by Rear View from 1991-94 that sold at the same house last November.

Lot 38 Jeff Koons, Yorkshire Terriers, $632,000 (est. $600-800,000)

The kitschy sweet pair of polychromed sculptures, color coded with gender appropriate blue and pink bows, hail from Koons’ celebrated Made in Heaven series from 1991.

The Princess, however, apparently took a bath on this one since she only acquired the doggies (edition number 3 of 3) last November (2004) at Christies’ New York (est. $500-700,000) for $903,000. That kind of quick turn-around is too much even for this red-hot market.

Lot 11 Richard Prince, Untitled (A Man Walks into a Doctor’s Office), $475,000 (Est. $250-350,000)

Auctioneer and auction house chairman Simon de Pury, in a campy delivery, read out loud the cheesy joke painting, claiming it was difficult for the audience to decipher. Though it hardly drew a laugh, the 1988 acrylic and silkscreen painting attracted a small posse of determined bidders. New York dealer Stellan Holm was the underbidder.

Lot 9 Takashi Murakami, Triptych: Snow, Moon, Flower, $408,000 (Est. $300-400,000)

The giant, undated work, with each decorative panel measuring 71 square inches, introduces Murakami’s cartoon figure, Mr. DOB. The character’s ears are painted in the shapes of letters D and B while the pancake flat face is shaped like the letter O.

Murakami claims he was inspired by the message art work of Jenny Holzer and aimed to show Japanese artists and critics that “we had to find another means of expression.”

Other critics might suggest returning to the drawing board.

Lot 31 Andreas Gursky, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, $352,000 (Est. $300-400,000)

A perfect metaphor for the current trading frenzy in contemporary art, the 73 ¼-by-101 ½ C-print from 1997 captures the orange, red and blue-coated floor traders in a paroxysm of hand gestures as they fight over hog belly and coffee bean futures. A private New York collector out distanced several contenders and helped shore up Gursky’s somewhat faltering market

Hottest Lot
Lot 20 Thomas Demand, Badezimmer (Bathroom), $138,000 (Est. $30-50,000)

Though no pun intended, demand was sky high for the Chromogenic color print from 1997 that more than doubled its high estimate. The faux-bathroom view, with its carefully constructed blue tiles and white shower curtain, hung on an easel in Princess Gloria’s castle in Regensberg, at least from the looks of the elaborate auction catalogue, profusely illustrated with interior shots.

Quotes from the Crowd
“What are you doing here?” challenged London dealer Bernard Jacobson to an uptown collector, “I thought you liked art.”

“I’ve never been to Kentucky, but it sure feels like Derby week,” said New York dealer Edward Nahem.

“It’s a very spotty collection as we all know, but the nice things did very well,” said New York collector Stellan Holm who underbid one of the Richard Prince joke paintings.

“The art market is stronger than ever, and I’m seduced and intoxicated by the energy of the auction,” said New York artist Mark Kostabi.

“Gloria is a big name in Europe, and tonight’s results prove she bought the right names in the ‘80s,” said Munich publisher Florian Langenscheidt, who nabbed Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s black-and-white photograph, Roped Mountain, from 1984-85 (est. $10-15,000) for $24,000.