Located just 160,000 and 200,000 light years away, respectively, the Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds are the most
luminous of the more
than 50 galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
Although GRB 000131, like other gamma - ray bursts, appears to have taken place in a remote «early galaxy» (or «sub-galactic clumps» of stars) that is
smaller than today's
luminous galaxies, astronomers found it difficult to detect that extremely dim, sub-galactic clump of stars even with the Hubble Space Telescope, as the observed fading of the afterglow indicated that the maximum brightness of the gamma - ray emission was explosion was at least 10,000 times brighter
than its host galaxy.
Other highlights of this auction include Lot 20, «Duridium,» a 26 - by - 36 inch magna on canvas, dated 1964, by Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997), estimated at $ 600,000 to $ 800,000, which sold for $ 607,500; Lot 21, «Ileana Sonnabend,» a 1963 metallic paint on canvas, 77 3/4 - by -128-inch work by Frank Stella (b. 1936) that has a high estimate of $ 600,000, and which sold for $ 684,500; Lot 29,» Evening in the Studio,» a monumental painting that out - Rubens Rubens by Lucian Freud and has an ambitious high estimate of $ 3,500,000, and which sold for only $ 2,422,500; Lot 30, «Lying Figure,» a large, interesting composition by Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992) that has an ambitious high estimate of $ 2,500,000 and is starker
than his more painterly
small works, and which was passed at $ 1,600,000; Lot 35, «Bedouin (Personage Gris et Rougeatre),» a great Jean Dubuffet (1901 - 1985) painting that is conservatively estimated at $ 700,000 to $ 900,000 and which sold for $ 992,500; and Lot 46, «Aux Bons Principes,» a more colorful but not as strong Dubuffet that has an ambitious high estimate of $ 3,000,000, and which sold for $ 2,202,500; and Lot 63, an untitled, large painting by Sigmar Polke (b. 1941) that has a mysterious,
luminous and mystical sense of a great mountainscape by the Sung Dynasty masters of China and has a conservative high estimate of $ 300,000, and which was passed at $ 150,000.