BASEL, Switzerland—The opening bell of year 38 for Art Basel rang loud Tuesday morning as VIP hordes made quick work of fair offerings.

Three different European collectors hit New York's Cheim & Read, buying Joan Mitchell's big and brawny abstraction Untitled (1958) for $2.3 million; Louise Bourgeois's bronze Blind Man's Buff from 1984 (the last from an edition of six) for $600,000; and a later untitled Bourgeois  sculpture from 2004 of a female figure in leather, thread, stainless steel, and glass for $400,000. "We can relax now," said partner John Cheim, barely an hour after the rush began.

Minutes later, Hamburg collector Peter Metzger, straw hat in hand, admired Juan Usle's modestly scaled abstraction Doble abierto (2006), in vinyl, dispersion, and dry pigment on canvas. "I think I will buy this one," said Metzger. "It's only $25,000.”

"If it was figurative, you'd have to add another zero to the price," teased the collector.

Nearby at London's Mayor Gallery, Evelyne Axell's sexy Pop-era confection Le petit espace vert (1970), in enamel, Plexiglas, and synthetic fur, sold in the mid-€30,000 range. Axell died young in 1972.

The New York/London Marlborough Gallery staged a smallish one-man show of London school painter Frank Auerbach with sensational results. Two drawings and six heavily impastoed paintings behind glass sold at prices ranging from €100,000 to €800,000, the latter price for The Bridge (2006).

On the outside wall of the large stand, Francis Bacon's imposing triptych from 1985-87, including images of Woodrow Wilson, a scene from Leon Trotsky's assassination in Mexico, and a powerful depiction of the artist's lover, carried a €45 million asking price. It is believed to be the only Bacon triptych on the market at the moment.

Outdoors, in the packed courtyard where VIPs queued for wurst and draft beer, several dealers were buzzing about the sale of two Andy Warhol “Diamond Dust Shadow” paintings from 1979 at Zurich's Ammann Gallery. Each of the paintings fetched $900,000, considered a high but surprisingly fair price given the insanity of the Warhol market. Not far away, at Bruno Bischofberger's stand, Warhol's four-part portrait of Marella Agnelli from 1982 was priced at $6.5 million.

"I've seen some great things," said New York art trader David Mugrabi, "but the prices are better than the paintings."