A man stands before Andy Warhol's painting 200 One Dollar Bills, which sold for $43.8 million US at auction in New York. (Sang Tan/Associated Press)Spirited bidding for paintings by pop artist Andy Warhol helped a New York contemporary art auction soar past pre-sale estimates Wednesday night.

The seminal Warhol painting 200 One Dollar Bills, one of his first silk-screen creations, drew frantic offers from several in-person and telephone bidders at Sotheby's. An anonymous buyer ultimately won, paying $43.8 million US.

The grey-and-black work, which depicts life-sized images of dollar bills, soared well past its highest pre-sale estimate of $12 million US.

Other works by Warhol, a favourite of art collectors, also drew attention.

Gifted self-portrait

A 1965 self-portrait — a gift from the iconic artist to Cathy Naso, who worked at his Factory Studio as a receptionist in her late teens — sold for $6.1 million US. It carried a high pre-sale estimate of $3.5 million US.

This Andy Warhol self-portrait, which the artist gave a former Factory Studio receptionist in 1967, sold for $6.1 million US. (Sotheby's/Associated Press) "I think I am dreaming," said Naso, who had kept the painting in a closet for years.

"Andy has made me famous for 15 minutes and I've come to realize that 15 minutes of fame is more than enough."

An untitled Warhol drawing of dollar bills sold for $4.2 million US as well. Nevertheless, none of the works came close to the record for a Warhol painting: the $71.1 million US paid for the painting Green Car Crash in 2007.

Overall, Wednesday night's sale of contemporary art fetched a total of $134.4 million US, with Sotheby's selling all but two of the 54 lots on the block.

On Thursday, the second half of the Sotheby's sale achieved a total of $33.7 million US. Highlights included Wayne Thiebaud's Supine Woman, which sold for $1.8 million US, a pair of untitled Alexander Calder mobiles that sold for more than $900,000 US each and a host of additional Warhol screenprints that fetched a range of prices.

Uneven results for rival Christie's

Earlier in the week, rival auction house Christie's had more mixed results at its contemporary and postwar art sale.

The Christie's sale achieved $74.1 million US, with 85 per cent of the 46 lots on offer finding buyers.

While two prominent works — Jean-Michel Basquiat's Brother Sausage and Andy Warhol's Tunafish Disaster — failed to sell, a Canadian-raised artist was prominent among the Christie's highlights. Peter Doig's 1996 oil on canvas painting Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like) doubled its pre-sale estimate and sold for $10.2 million US.