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Andy Warhol’s acid-green painting of a gruesome car wreck sold for $71.7 million last night, as Christie’s International sped past rival Sotheby’s to chalk up the biggest-ever auction of postwar and contemporary art. The sale in New York raised $384.7 million, beating the previous high set on Tuesday at Sotheby’s by more than 50 percent, as the market confounded predictions of overheating and extended its position as one of the fastest-rising investments. Telephone bids poured in from around the world, 22 artist records tumbled and presale estimates were meaningless.

“It’s heated and rising,” said New York dealer Ann Freedman of Knoedler & Co. “Sales are raking in records consistently. There’s a great of deal of money competing for select works of art.”

A roomful of pinstriped dealers, millionaires and billionaires, including Teddy Forstmann and Michael Ovitz, watched artist records tumble one after another: Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, Cindy Sherman and the roll call went on. All but four of the 78 lots sold, with 56 selling for more than $1 million.

The price for Warhol’s 1963 “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)” was the highest ever for the Pop Art star and just $1.1 million shy of the $72.8 million postwar record set at Sotheby’s on Tuesday by a Mark Rothko painting. Last night’s sale was second only to Christie’s $491.5 million auction of Impressionist and modern art last November, which was swollen by Nazi-restituted works.

Mao Eclipsed

“Each year, people who are old hands say ‘I wonder if this can hold?”’ said collector and Museum of Modern Art trustee Barbara Jakobson, donning her signature bright yellow eyeglasses as she exited the salesroom. “It just seems to be a rising market.”

As in Sotheby’s Tuesday’s sale, there was little regard for price precedents. Warhol’s previous record, set in November, was $17.4 million for a 1972 portrait of China’s former chairman Mao Zedong. “Green Car Crash,” which had a top estimate of $35 million, last appeared at auction in 1978, when it fetched about 36,000 pounds ($69,000) at Christie’s in London.

The Warhol was sold to an anonymous phone bidder, speaking with a Hong Kong-based Christie’s representative, leading dealers to speculate the buyer was Asian.

Warhol was huge in the evening’s tally. Ten Warhols added $136.7 million to the total.

“Lemon Marilyn,” a portrait of doomed starlet Marilyn Monroe with a purple face on a yellow background, was estimated to fetch up to $18 million and sold for $28 million. It was acquired by the seller for a few hundred dollars in 1962, the year it was painted.

Rockefeller Rothko

The week’s affection for Rothko also continued. A 1954 painting by the brooding Abstract Expressionist sold by dealer Robert Mnuchin fetched $26.9 million and a plumy 1961 canvas went for $22.4 million. Dealers said Tuesday’s record price for a Rothko was helped by the fact that the seller was David Rockefeller Sr.

Prices include a commission of 20 percent of the hammer price up to $500,000 and 12 percent on the rest.

The geographic breakdown of buyers shows a global expansion in bidders for famous-name art. Christie’s said 47 percent of buyers last night were American, down from 82 percent in the fall of 2005. Asians represented 18 percent of buyers, up from 3 percent and close to the 19 percent from Europe and Russia.

Warhol painted the 7 1/2-foot “Green Car Crash” by repeating a photo of a bizarre accident published in Newsweek. During a police chase, a fleeing car crashed into a telephone pole, overturned and hurled the 24-year-old driver against a spike in the pole. The multiple images show him limp and impaled. The work is part of the artist’s “Death and Disaster” series, which included electric chairs and suicides.

Marilyn Appeal

The success of “Green Car Crash” surprised some dealers who said the artist’s sultry portraits of Monroe typically had more appeal for collectors. The second- and third-most-expensive Warhols sold at auction before last night were Marilyns.

“New buyers want some sort of classy trophy,” New York private dealer Nancy Whyte said. “For that, Marilyn is perfect.”

The prices paid in the past two weeks are likely to renew predictions by some dealers and collectors that contemporary art has become overvalued.

“The rich are getting poorer,” joked private New York dealer Franck Giraud, leaving the salesroom. “They have made a lot, to spend this much in one night. It’s over the top.”