In the contemporary art market, youth rules the day. But in the auctions, mature artists continue to hold sway in the high-profile evening sales. At Christie’s, which has the broadest range and best work this spring, there was abundant evidence to back up both statements.

When I visited the preview for its Postwar and Contemporary Art auctions, I was only mildly surprised to find a gaggle of collectors huddled around a small example in a second-floor gallery devoted to works on paper, which will be sold this afternoon. These folks were looking at an untitled gouache and ink on vellum and paper, from 2000, by Julie Mehretu (b. 1970), a young woman who is among the most sought-after artists working today – so much so, in fact, that she was the subject of a recent lawsuit. It’s a fantastic piece and, with a $20,000-$30,000 presale estimate, much less expensive than one of her large paintings, which, in any case, are almost impossible to buy. Christie’s had another Mehretu work on paper, from 1998, but because it isn’t on vellum or Mylar – her signature media – it’s neither as good nor as desirable.

Indeed, Christie’s has a trove of work by younger artists in this spring’s sales. Frankly, I’d rather have Peter Doig’s large oil “Briey (Concrete Cabin),” an image of a building facade seen through trees, than, say, Andy Warhol’s mind-numbingly decorative “Flowers” (1965), despite the latter’s $7-10 million estimate. Still, there were impressive works by most of the big-name painters included: an extraordinary purple Rothko abstraction form 1964; Edward Hopper’s iconic “Chair Car” (1965); Willem de Kooning’s masterly “Sail Cloth” (1949); and an important, early Gerhard Richter, “Scharzler” (1964), among them.

In the sculpture arena, it’s a toss-up between youth and age. While I admire Rachel Whiteread and her “Untitled (Black Bed),” a fiberglass and rubber casting of what would seem to be the space underneath a bed, I would be hard-pressed to argue its superiority over David Smith’s late polychrome “Seven Hours” (1961) or Alexander Calder’s delicate and whimsical brass-wire depiction of a reclining woman, “Femme Couchee” (c. 1930). And so I would perhaps opt for the pure hilarity of Duane Hanson’s “Flea Market Lady” (1990-91), on sale today. This is a startlingly lifelike polychrome bronze sculpture of a tackily dressed, middle-aged woman reading through old books while seated on a folding chair.

Also this afternoon Cindy Sherman’s two Untitled Film Stills will likely dominate the rich offerings in photography, with her famous, Marylin-esque “Untitled Film Still #54” the obvious front-runner. But I would point out the less known and, to my mind, more intriguing “Untitled (Film Still #46),” a black-and-white image in which the artist appears sub merged in a pool and hidden by a diving mask.

Collectors went for Jasper Johns’s 1986 murky charcoal drawing “Winter,” which was expected to go for as much as $2-3 million. I, however, am not a fan, and was delighted that more was paid for Arshile Gorky’s “Composition II” (1943), a magnificent graphite and wax crayon abstraction, despite its much lower estimate.

Of course, in the auction world money has always been directed by unaccountable tastes. But the yens of almost any buyer will certainly be gratified by the wealth of art in Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary auctions.