Before the sale began, Christopher Burge, honorary chairman of Christie's in America and the evening's auctioneer, announced the owner may be bidding on the painting.
"He reminds me a bit of Allen Iverson because Allen could create offense with his quickness on defense," said Georgetown Coach Craig Esherick, who may be bidding adieu to his own star, the N.B.A.-ready junior forward Mike Sweetney.
CNET is reporting today that Microsoft may be bidding for the company.
More recent rumors suggest Israeli networking company Radware may be bidding as little as $50 million for the same division, according to the Israel news site Globes.
McIlroy, a right-hander, may be bidding for the fifth major of his career - but he still has a long way to go to catch the game's greatest.
Still others, like Powell Goldstein, a firm based in Atlanta with more than 200 lawyers, are merging with larger rivals in deals that may be bids for stability.
The auction houses also disclose that guarantors may be bidding, even though, they say, consumer affairs regulations do not expressly require that.
For example, a stock that before decimalization had a bid price of $20 and an asking price of $201/16 may now be bid at $20.02 and offered at $20.05.
Mr Potanin and Mr Soros may soon be bidding for Rosneft, the last of Russia's big state-owned oil firms.
Prices of junk bonds may have been bid up by investment funds trying to use up large cash balances before the end of the year, rather than by expectations of economic recovery, says Martin Fridson of Merrill Lynch.
