Jeff Koons

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WHEN TWO MAJOR PIECES from Jeff Koons's "Celebration" series, 1994-, came up for auction for the first time last November, a breach was torn in the fabric of the Koons market, not to mention the cultural cosmos. Diamond (Blue), 1994-2005, sold at Christie's for $11.8 million, more than doubling the highest price ever paid for a Koons work at auction; the following night, Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold), 1994-2006, sold at Sotheby's for $23.6 million, making it (as headlines trumpeted) the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned.

Recent private trades for key pieces from "Celebration"--sixteen hyperrealist paintings and twenty oversize sculptures of inflatable animals, childhood toys, and the garish flotsam of holiday revelry--were already known, with a Balloon Dog, 1994-2000, said to have sold for more than $15 million. And though the actual buyers weren't named, both Diamond (Blue) and Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold) were purchased by dealer Larry Gagosian, who had been …