ART

A week of sales at the nation’s major art auction houses racked up $203 million in sales, 30% more than the experts’ pre-sale estimate. The sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s galleries last week dispersed more than 2,000 Impressionist and modern paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints and tribal art objects. Of the top lots, many bringing more than $1 million each, Europeans, South Americans and Australians bought 47, Americans bought 35 and Japanese bought 25. None of the purchasers were identified by name, and the buyer of three top lots totaling $25 million in Christie’s Wednesday sale, including a $13.8-million Vincent van Gogh portrait, was identified only as “a collector.”