Warhol silkscreen soars to $43 million at Sotheby's

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Andy Warhol's monumental silk-screen "200 One Dollar Bills" sold for $43.76 million at Sotheby's contemporary art auction on Wednesday, quelling fears deep-pocketed collectors remain skittish during the weak economy.

The 1962 Warhol painting, which sold for more than four times the estimate, became the second-highest price at auction for the late pop artist.

The auction totaled an astonishing $134.4 million in sales including commission, or more than half again its pre-sale estimate, with bidders snapping up all but two of the 54 lots on offer.

Records were set for several artists such as Jean Dubuffet

Saying that collectors had responded to a "recalibrated market," Sotheby's head of contemporary art Tobias Meyer said the strong results showed that "after a year of not buying ... collectors have started buying again."

"The desire to have great things will make (them) step up and pay more than $40 million" for a work of art, Meyer said.

(Reporting by Christopher Michaud; editing by Philip Barbara)