"One first-time buyer bought one of the top 10 works tonight, a Warhol painting."

In 1993, when Mr. Hughes tried to sell 12 Warhol paintings, only 2 found buyers.

The estate has refused to disclose the number of Warhol paintings it owns.

At Sotheby's on May 15, a 1964 Warhol painting of a Campbell's can sold for $5.5 million.

But when she brought the hourglass home and placed it on a table under the Warhol painting of flowers, she said, she "got excited all over again."

The show features more than 300 Warhol paintings, sculptures, photographs and films drawn from collections in nine countries.

The Warhol paintings are shown in the central main-floor gallery.

Too bad Chairman Mao isn't around to see how, 30 years after his death in 1976, those Warhol paintings remain a symbolic shorthand for consumerist culture.

The sale also included Warhol paintings of various dates, subject matter and quality.

Art Market Monitor points out that seven of the top 10 prices ever paid for Warhol paintings have been recorded since 2008.