Wednesday was a day of great enthusiasm for art collectors and dealers that helped Sotheby’s mark a record auction total with its contemporary artwork selling for an impressive $315.9 million.

A Jeff Koons sculpture of a stainless red heart hanging from a golden bow became the most expensive artwork by a living artist ever auctioned, according to a Sotheby’s spokeswoman, as the piece sold Wednesday for $23.6 million in New York.

“Hanging Heart,” nearly 9 feet tall and weighing more than 3,500 pounds, is part of Koons’ 1994-2005 “Celebration” series. It was bought by the Gagosian Gallery, reports the Associated Press, which also acquired Koons’ “Diamond (Blue)” sculpture for $11.8 million during Tuesday’s auction at Christie’s.

The enormous heart sculpture, one of five versions each in a different color, was being sold by Manhattan collector Adam Lindeman, according to the New York Times. Sotheby’s had estimated it would bring $15 million to $20 million. Its $23.6 million sale price included an auction house commission.

“Koons is an artist who doesn't allow compromise, and ‘Hanging Heart’ is all about making an impossibility possible,” Tobias Meyer, head of Sotheby's contemporary art department, was quoted by the AP as saying.

The previous auction record for a living artist was Damien Hirst's “Lullaby Spring,” which sold for $19.5 million at Sotheby's in London in June. Hirst's piece was a stainless steel medicine cabinet containing 6,136 handcrafted and painted pills.

Of the 71 lots offered at Sotheby’s Wednesday, only 6 failed to sell.

Francis Bacon’s paintings were not among these. “Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1” (1969) was the evening’s most expensive painting, bought by an unidentified American art dealer for $45.9 million, according to the Times. Sotheby’s presale estimate was of $35 million.

Another 1969 painting by Bacon, representing a self-portrait of the painter, received ample bidding and eventually sold for $33 million. Experts had estimated it would sell for $15 million to $20 million, the Times reports.

Sotheby’s had offered approximately $60 million in guarantees for the two paintings, should they fail to find buyers, according to the paper.