ARTS

Auction Falters: Willem de Kooning’s Abstract Expressionist painting, “July 1956,” sold for $8.8 million to New York dealer Larry Gagosian on Wednesday night at Christie’s New York. The price exceeded Christie’s most optimistic estimate of $7 million, but the De Kooning was one of the few bright spots in a dismal auction of blue chip contemporary art. Twenty-eight of the 58 items offered failed to find buyers, and sales totaled only $36.7 million--considerably less than the predicted total of $41.7 million to $65.4 million.