A skull-head painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat soared to $93.1 million at Christie’s on Tuesday, offering the first glimpse of the demand for high-end art as the world begins to emerge from the pandemic.

The work accounted for nearly half of Christie’s $210.5 million haul for its 21st-century evening sale. The total, which included fees, surpassed the low presale target of $145 million. Of the 39 lots offered, just two didn’t find buyers and new records were set for 11 artists. Asian buyers snapped up 25 percent of lots, including another Basquiat and a Dana Schutz canvas.

“The results tonight are a proof that for the first time the demand and the supply were finally aligned,” said Christie’s C.E.O. Guillaume Cerutti, who called the market “resilient and dynamic.”

With no major 21st-century collection on the market, Christie’s had to assemble the auction piece by piece, said Ana Maria Celis, the head of the sale. Specialists focused on the past 40 years of art making, starting with Basquiat and ending with a diverse group of Black and female artists, as well as an NFT.

The success was also the result of tight choreography: 16 of the 39 works had been guaranteed and most were backed by third parties, ensuring they would sell. To spark the bidding, many estimates were kept below primary-market prices, and the reserves were considerably below the estimates.

A shift in taste was unmistakable. The mainstays of recent years—Gerhard Richter, Christopher Wool, Richard Prince—sold to their backers without any competition. On the other hand, fireworks erupted as buyers from all over the world chased after a new generation of stars, establishing records for Nina Chanel Abney ($990.000), Jordan Casteel ($687,500), Alex da Corte ($187,500), Lynette Yiadom-Boakye ($1.95 million), and El Anatsui ($1.95 million).

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