Flowers, Chocolates, Or Art This V-Day?

Flowers. Chocolates. Damien Hirst's All You Need is Love. These are just a few of the purchases that might be made on any number of Amex gold, platinum, and black cards this Valentine's Day.

Sotheby's heavily marketed and highly anticipated (Red) sale is tonight. After the red carpet and before the party featuring The Hours and Q-Tip, some 72 lots will be auctioned to benefit HIV/AIDS relief efforts in Africa. Among the highlights: Andreas Gursky's photograph of an annual festival held in North Korea to honor Kim Jong-il's predecessor; Marc Quinn's sculpture of Kate Moss (this version of his well-known fashion-muse-as-sphinx with red lips à la the cause); Damien Hirst's pill cabinet filled with replicas of antiretroviral drugs; Banksy's defacement of one of Hirst's iconic spot paintings; and Takashi Murakami's Red Flower Ball (3-D), which Sotheby's Oliver Barker says is hard to come by in the primary market right now.

The sale has caught some flak. In early February, Bloomberg's Linda Sandler reported that the auction house cut its pre-sale estimate from $40 million to $21 million - $29 million amid fears that the beleaguered economy would restrain bidders. To those who are expecting it to prophecy the future of the art market — something that's on everyone's minds as the financial markets take a beating — Alexandra Peers points out that the auction is exempt from state and local taxes because it's for charity and that Sotheby's isn't taking commission on any lots sold, meaning this is a sale subject to unusual conditions and not necessarily a market barometer. But Artnet.com's "Art Market Watch" essentially calls for a kibosh on the sniping: "In fact, the sale has plenty going for it: The good cause encourages bidders to step up...and the event adds a very high-profile contemporary sale to an empty spot on the New York auction calendar."

Check back tomorrow for an account of how much the auction raised and who bought what.

Damien Hirst, Where There's A Will, There's A Way, ©Damien Hirst, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates, Estimate: $5 million - $7 million

Damien Hirst, All You Need Is Love, ©Damien Hirst, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates, Estimate: $1 million - $1.5 million

Andreas Gursky, Pyongyang IV, ©Andreas Gursky/VG Bild-Kunst, Courtesy: Monika Sprüth/Philomene Magers, Cologne Munich London, Estimate: $300,000 - $400,000