New York —
On Monday evening, it took auction house Christie’s just 40 minutes to sell more than $630 million in art, smashing records for both the painter Jackson Pollock and sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Later in the night, it rounded things off with yet more broken records and another $490 million.
The first part of the $1.1-billion New York sale featured 16 works from S.I. Newhouse’s storied collection. It marked the fourth time Christie’s has brought a group of works to market from the late media giant, who owned Condé Nast, as well as large slice of America’s local newspapers and broadcast stations.
But it was the first time that the…