A portrait of the Virgin Mary by Giovanni Bellini that was recently auctioned in Vienna bore the addition "and assistant", but that did not detract from the demand: At its Old Masters auction, the Dorotheum experienced lively interest in the exquisite Madonna.

In the bidding war, the work, valued at 250,000 to 360,000 euros, was driven to an unexpected 1.13 million euros.

After this success, the auctions of modern and contemporary art are coming up at the end of November.

In the Modern category, the pencil drawing "Standing Peasant Girl with Headscarf" demonstrates Egon Schiele's accurate line management.

The young people's faces and bodies express a wait-and-see attitude, as it were on the threshold of becoming a woman.

The sheet, created in 1915, remained with Schiele's archivist Max Wagner until 1999;

now 140,000 to 200,000 euros are expected for it.

Five paintings by the Tyrolean Alfons Walde also lead into rural areas.

"Alms and Glaciers" feature strong light-dark contrasts (estimate 220,000 to 360,000 euros), while Walde's "Lonely Mountain Farm" lies in deep snow (250,000/380,000).

One of the few New Objective artists in Austria was Rudolf Wacker, who preferred to create still lifes.

His small format "Doll (with matchbox I)" is between 35,000 and 60,000 euros.

The well-travelled Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka used a sophisticated interior as the motif for her painting "Chambre d'hotel" (150,000/200,000) in the early 1950s.

A Venice veduta from Giorgio de Chirico's late work is said to bring in 120,000 to 160,000 euros.

Surrealism from South America offers three oil paintings each by the Chilean Roberto Matta and the Cuban Wifredo Lam, with estimates ranging between 25,000 and 90,000 euros.

The cover of the contemporary art auction catalog features a red and black pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama covered in signature 'polka dots'.

The acrylic painting by the blue-chip artist, which is only 23 by 16 centimeters, is in the running for 250,000 to 350,000 euros.

The Queen is also trendy: she can be seen with red hair on the screen print that Andy Warhol produced on the occasion of her silver jubilee in 1985 (150,000/200,000).

The auction's highest estimate is a pink "Concetto Spaziale" by Lucio Fontana.

600,000 to 800,000 euros are expected for the picture, which was perforated and scratched in 1965.

Short lines cover Alighiero Boetti's two-part work "Naturale Artificiale", which the Arte Povera artist dashed with a red ballpoint pen in 1982 (160,000/280,000).

The structured canvases of Enrico Castellani always achieve good results in Vienna.

A triangular “Superficie Bianca” from 1986 is currently being auctioned for between 250,000 and 350,000 euros.

The composition “Mis Mus Sian” by Jiří Dokoupil, measuring two and a half by three meters, has a decorative effect, on which pigments mixed with soapy water cause countless colorful bubble formations to shimmer (60,000/80,000).

Fluorescent colors against a black background also shine in Daniel Richter's apocalyptic oil painting "Leap from the Tower" with falling figures (40,000/60,000).

Hans Hartung is represented with four gestural abstractions, of which "T 1964 - E 40" condenses incised blue lines (180,000/220,000).

Hermann Nitsch, who died in April at the age of 83, left a huge oeuvre.

The auction features a three meter wide action picture with a mess dress from 1995 (80,000/140,000) as well as a square dump picture from 2013 (70,000/120,000), all red on red, but – according to the work – without the use of blood.

The world of comics also plays a part in the event: After the inventor of the "Peanuts", Charles M. Schulz, met the artist couple Jeanne-Claude and Christo in 1975, he invented a story in which Snoopy's kennel is packed.

Almost thirty years later, Christo responded with the "Wrapped Snoopy House", the sketch of which is now up for auction (85,000/100,000).