The (Red) auction, organized by Bono’s RED organization, Sotheby’s auction house and Gagosian Gallery, raised $42.58 million at their contemporary art auction on Valentine’s Day in New York for the United Nations Foundation to support programs to fight HIV/AIDS run by The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

U2’s Bono and artist Damien Hirst scored big with their efforts at fund raising and soliciting donations from artists for the auction which were then scooped up by celebrities at the sale; all but one work sold that evening. The auction included sixty works by artists such as Tracey Emin, Banksy, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Anselm Keifer, Julian Schnabel, Jasper Johns, Damien Hirst, Georg Baselitz, Jeff Koons, Howard Hodgkin and Anish Kapoor and many others. Eighty one of the eighty three lots up for sale were donated directly by the artists. Hirst himself donated seven works of art to the sale which sold for a total of $19 million.

Photo: Sotheby’s