VIENNA.- Dorotheum's modern art auction had a roaring start with a million-euro result. An outstandingly documented discovery from the oeuvre of the Belgian artist James Ensor incited riotous bidding on the telephone lines. The carnivalesque group portrait "Baptême de masques" (circa 1925–1930), which was inspired by a photograph, sold for well above estimate at 1,022,500 euros.

It depicts the artist posing amidst his masked friends, sporting a military busby. The price represents a top 10 result for works by Ensor, which rarely come to the market.

According to the catalogue text, the painting blends all the principles of Ensor’s art: light that intensifies the mother-of-pearl colours, a desire for modernity, masks that confuse reality and his self-portrait as a marionette in a masquerade.

Fernando Botero’s excellent sculpture "Bather" was also prized among bidders, garnering 344,600 euros. A large-scale abstract work from 1938 by the German artist Rudolf Bauer sold for well above estimate at 295,800 euros: "Two purple balls – Das Geistreich", a painting formerly owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim, who had helped Bauer emigrate to the U.S. in 1939.