NEW YORK, NY.- The top lot in Swann Galleries’ June 9 auction of American Art and Contemporary Art was Jared French's Siren, an egg tempera painting, circa 1945, which remained in the artist's possession until his death. The richly symbolic work sold for $138,000*—the third highest price ever paid for a Jared French painting at auction.

The sale established an auction record for the work of Mary Nimmo Moran, wife of famous Hudson River School artist Thomas Moran. Long Island Landscape, an 1880 oil on panel, was her first painting to appear at auction. It sold for $64,800.

Thomas Hart Benton's Landscape, Martha's Vineyard, oil on paper, circa 1922-24, drew a lot of phone bidders from all over the country, including Martha's Vineyard, and sold for $60,000.

Other featured American paintings were Ogden M. Pleissner’s Rail Shooting on the Connecticut River, watercolor on paper, circa 1950s, $26,400; Charles Burchfield’s Fallen Tree, watercolor, crayon, pen and ink and pencil on paper, 1944-54, $20,400; and another Jared French egg tempera, Città, circa 1960s, $13,200.

Among the top-selling contemporary works were several prints by Andy Warhol, such as Flowers, color screenprint from the same-titled portfolio, which came with a copy of the original receipt from Castelli Graphics, New York, 1972, $45,600; Cow, color screenprint on wallpaper, 1976, $21,600; and Mick Jagger, a complete set of 10 offset color lithographs after Warhol, 1975 , $20,400.

Other prints of note included Richard Hamilton’s I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas, color screenprint, collotype and collage, 1971, $28,800; Jasper Johns’s Untitled I (Hatching), color etching and aquatint, 1976, which brought a record $16,800; and Keith Haring’s Art Attack on AIDS, a unique screenprint printed in black and white, 1988, $13,200.

Other unique contemporary examples included an Alexander Calder gouache on paper, Loops on Gray and Red, 1968, $40,800; Richard Pettibone’s Marilyn with Red Background, acrylic and color screenprint on canvas, 1978, $13,200; Sol Lewitt’s Untitled (Various Wavy Lines in Color), gouache on paper, 1996, $12,000; a triptych of charcoal drawings of oranges on by Donald Sultan, 2002, $14,400; and Yoshitomo Nara’s Girl with Hands in Smoke, color crayons on the back of a mailing envelope from Suntory Museum, Tokyo, $12,000.

Compelling three-dimensional items included a painted steel and wire Stabile by Margery Kahn, circa 1950s, $11,400; Louise Nevelson’s Sculpture for the American Book Award, wood multiple painted in black, 1980, $4,560; and Christo’s Lower Manhattan Wrapped Buildings, Project for Two Broadway, Twenty Exchange Place, color lithograph and collage of fabric, thread, map and masking tape, 1990, $11,400.