After a rocky week of auction sales and art-fair activity, Christie's postwar and contemporary evening sale sounded an unmistakably triumphant blast for the art market Friday, realizing £38,070,350 ($59,998,872), whisker-close to the £39.4 million high estimate.

Forty-seven of the 53 lots sold for a crisp 11 percent buy-in rate by lot and eight percent by value. Seven artist records were set, one work sold for over £10 million ($15.7 million), and ten hurdled the million pound mark ($1.6 million). Fifteen of those 47 lots sold for over a million dollars.

Buyers, meanwhile, spanned the globe, with 49 percent hailing from Europe, 38 percent from America, and significantly, 13 percent from Asia. "I've never seen so much Asian buying in one sale," said Francis Outred, Christie's European head of postwar and contemporary art.

More remarkably, the sale came close to nicking the £39 million record for any Christie's contemporary sale in London that was set back in October 2007. That sale offered 110 lots. Friday's auction also almost doubled last October's £19.6 million ($31.3 million) tally.

The evening got off to a cracking start when Joe Bradley's 2006 "Double Runner," a Minimalist-like, seven-part grid abstraction in red, white, and blue, sold for a record £79,250 ($124,898) on an estimate of £25,000-35,000. Later, Martin Kippenberger's playful lantern sculpture from 1990, untitled and executed in steel, glass, and light bulb, also in seven parts, sold after a fierce bidding war to New York dealer Philippe Segalot for £1,329,250 ($2,094,898) against an £250,000-350,000 estimate.

Another explosive volley of bids greeted Antony Gormley's 79-inch-high "Angel of the North (Life-Size Maquette)," a 1996 sculpture from a cast-iron edition of five, that sold to a woman bidder in the packed salesroom for a record £3,401,250 ($5,360,370) on a £1.5-2 million estimate. Saville Row dealer Pilar Ordovas was the underbidder.

Even Damien Hirst, whose market of late has been spotty (no pun intended), had a stellar evening, with all five works offered finding new homes, including "Judas Iscariot (The Twelve Disciples)" from 1994, featuring a tired-looking bull's head in steel, glass, and formaldehyde solution, that made £993,250 ($1,565,362). It had been estimated at £500,000-700,000. Hirst's "Midas and the Infinite," a diamond-shaped, butterfly-encrusted canvas from 2008, sold to Israeli-based investment magnate Hezi Bezalel for £601,250 ($947,570) on an estimate of £600,000-800,000.

Asked if he would heed Hirst's personal request, announced by auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen's before the sale, that the work be made available for his Tate Britain retrospective next year, the financier said, "Of course." The collector got a bargain in that the work previously sold at Sotheby's London in September 2008 for £825,250.

Another YBA figure, Ron Mueck, also had a good evening, with his creepy "Man Under Cardigan" in mixed-media from 1998, selling for £601,250 ($947,570) on an estimate of £400,000-600,000. Legendary London dealer Anthony d'Offay, seated in the first row of the buzzing salesroom, was the underbidder.

But the high drama of the evening was reserved for the glowing cover lot, Gerhard Richter's "Kerz (Candle)" from 1982, that caught fire and raced to a record £10,457,250 ($16,480,626) for the artist. The work had been estimated at £6-9 million. At least four telephone bidders chased the picture in a see-saw bidding battle.

Luckily for Christie's and the Scandinavian collector who consigned the painting, the artist is enjoying a devoutly received retrospective now at Tate Modern, including another single-candle picture that doesn't come close to the quality of this one. According to Outred, Richter has painted 27 candle pictures in the series, with three destroyed, seven in museums, and the rest held privately. There are 12 single-candle canvases, and the current example, with a simple white flame faintly outlined in red and set against a glowing rectangle, generated "immense interest," the specialist said.

The painting eclipsed the previous mark by a whopping three million pounds, set when a "Kerze (Candle)" from 1983 sold at Sotheby's London in February 2008 for £7,972,500 ($15,843,600).

Even more remarkably, as observed by sharp eyed Baerfaxt publisher Josh Baer, the painting had been featured in the online-only, New York-based VIP Art Fair last February, when Copenhagen and Beijing dealer Jens Faurschou  offered it for a more optimistic €15 million. Faurschou, it so happened, was seated in the first row of the salesroom, and affirmed he had advised the consignor of the Richter to take his masterpiece to auction.

Outred, who took the winning phone bid for the Richter declined to reveal where the painting was heading, other than to say "it went to a very good home." With that record tucked under Christie's belt, the market seemed to take a big sigh of relief.

Commenting on the difference between the back-to-back evening sales at Sotheby's and Christie's, New York dealer Christophe van de Weghe said that "the material was better here than at Sotheby's. People came in tonight with much more confidence and you can really see people felt like buying art. There was a very good mood in the room."

Probably too good for van de Weghe, who underbid Jean-Michel Basquiat's honking red-and-green "Pedestrian 2" from 1984, which sold to a telephone bidder for £1,329,250 ($2,094,898) on a £1-1.5 million estimate. It last sold at Sotheby's London in October 2007 for £748,500 ($1,524,750).

The night was not free of casualties, however, and of the significant buy-ins the prize goes to Richard Prince's "Nurse Forrester's Secret" from 2002-03 in acrylic and inkjet print on canvas (est. £2.1-3 million). It died at an imaginary £1.7 million chandelier bid. Three other lesser-priced works by Prince sold, but the market is still fussy about his overblown Nurse series.

A seemingly huge price was achieved for Maurizio Cattelan's large-scaled photograph "Hollywood," featuring an elaborate recreation of the famous sign — only set up in Palermo, Italy, during the 2001 Venice Biennale and seen in situ by only a select group of jet-setting aficionados. It sold for £337,250 ($531,506) against an estimate of £40,000-60,000.

Paris dealer Emmanuel Perrotin, a longtime supporter of Cattelan, was the  direct underbidder, along with a competing Gagosian Gallery director. Of the price, Perrotin said the installation by itself cost $800,000, and the edition of ten plus two artist proofs made the auction price "quite reasonable." Cattelan, it might be added, has famously announced he will cease his art practice following the upcoming Guggenheim retrospective next month.

Of the younger set, an impressive mark was established by the Iraqi-born, Yale-educated painter Ahmed Alsoudani, who is currently the subject of a solo show at Haunch of Venison in Mayfair. "Baghdad I" from 2008, a giant, brutally figurative, and complex diptych, with each panel measuring 82 7/8 by 72 inches, sold to a telephone bidder for a record £713,250 ($1,124,082) on an estimate of £250,000-350,000. It crushed the previous mark set at Sotheby's London last October when his "Untitled" from 2007 made £289,250 ($463,615).

"The market is clearly alive and well," said auctioneer Pylkkanen. "There's no doubt about it."

As its arch-rival Sotheby's did on Thursday evening, Christie's also held its "Italian Sale" on the same night, realizing £17,559,650 ($27,674,008). Thirty-three of the 47 lots offered sold, led by the stunning Piero Manzoni abstraction "Achrome" from 1958-59, which fetched £3,289,250 ($5,183,858) against an estimate of £2.2-2,8 milllion.

The evening contemporary action resumes in New York next month, so stay tuned for another "Mad Men" season.