Sotheby’s Arcade Fine Art: Old Master to Contemporary sale took place June 29-30, bringing $4,497,980, a record total for an Arcade sale.

The top lot of the sale, William V. Cahill’s “The Dress Fitting,” which had been estimated at $2,5/3,500, brought a staggering $327,200, shattering the former auction record of $6,500. The winning bidder was Edenhurst Galleries of Los Angeles and Palm Desert.

Jennifer Roth, director of the Arcade Fine Art department, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the total of the sale. The market for modern and contemporary art is extremely strong right now. There were many highlights in the contemporary section of the sale, including property from the estate of Larry Aldrich. All 17 lots sold from this estate sold, exceeding their high estimate”

Commenting on the surprise of the sale – Cahill’s “The Dress Fitting” – Roth said, “This charming work from 1912, painted under the influence of Cahill’s teachers Tarbell and Benson, attracted numerous bids up to $80,000.”

Rounding out the sale’s top ten were: Anthony Thieme, “St George Street, St Augustine, Florida,” $84,000; Odd Nerdrum, “Man with a Woman’s Head,” $69,600; Edouard Leon Cortes, “Theatre du Chatelet,” $48,000; Charles Sprague Pearce, “La Bourasque,” $42,000; Franz Kline, untitled, $39,000; Henri Matisse, “Tete de Femme,” $39,000; Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA, “Portrait of George, Lord Vernon,” $39,000; Edouard Leon Cortes, “Boulevard de la Madeleine,” $36,000; and Meret Oppenheim, “Grosser bewölkter Himmel über Kontinenten (Large Cloudy Sky Over the Continents),” $34,800.

Prices reported include buyer’s premium, which is 20 percent of the hammer price on the first $100,000, and 12 percent on any amount above that.