NEW YORK—With the one-year anniversary of the fall of the house of Lehman just behind us, market watchers and auction house execs may still be biting their nails in anticipation of this season's auctions. But if this morning's "First Open" sale of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's is any indication, things might not be so bad.

Of 155 lots on offer at the sale, 129 found buyers, for sold rates of 83 percent by lot and 88 percent by value. The sale totaled $4.4 million, more than $1 million more than the last "First Open" sale in the spring.

The day's top achiever was a 1964 Warhol Flowers, which sold for $1,082,500. Estimated at $500,000–700,000, it was in an entirely different league than bulk of the auction's offerings. In comparison, the second-highest seller was an aluminum and Plexiglas construction by relative newcomer Roni Horn called Steven's Bouquet (1991) that was estimated to earn $70,000–100,000. It too more than surpassed expectations, going for $242,500.

Rounding out the top 10 works at the sale, tailored to younger or less seasoned buyers, were offerings by Adolph Gottlieb, Takashi Murakami, Sigmar Polke, Yue Minjun, Keith Haring, Conrad Marca-Relli, Raoul De Keyser, and Mübin Orhon, most of which also bested their estimates, which were predominantly in the five- to low-six-figure range.

Alexandre Carel, who oversaw the sale, commented that it "demonstrated excellent results, setting a positive, confident tone for the season."