Multiple bidders set the tone on the auction floor.

FORBES: Art World Froth Meets Stock Market Value

His likely successor at NYSE Euronext (nyse: NYX - news - people ), Duncan Niederauer, is a fellow Goldman alum who has expressed disdain for floor brokers--another sign the ever-shrinking auction floor of the Big Board is giving way to NYSE's electronic systems.

FORBES: Merrill Hires Mr. Fix-It

The NYSE has been under pressure to become more of an electronic-trading model and ditch its centuries-old floor auction model.

FORBES: How Much Is That NYSE In The Window?

On the top floor auction house Phillips de Pury occupies two rooms.

FORBES: Smart Collecting

Those were difficult times--when the future of the exchange's floor-based auction system was in doubt.

FORBES: Hot Seats

The NYSE has been battling competition from more-electronically oriented trading networks as well as dealing with public relations and regulatory problems that have called into question the effectiveness of its floor-based auction system.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The auction system that dominates the NYSE floor operations "will sink or swim on whether it continues to add value, " says David Humpreville, the president of the Specialists Association at the NYSE.

FORBES: Not So Fast, Big Board

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its hybrid plan, which would increase electronic trading of listed stocks but still preserve its 200-year-old auction system using specialists on the exchange floor.

FORBES: The NYSE Trades Up

TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Vito Bruno, a concert promoter in Brooklyn, who says he bought the floor in what was billed an absolute auction last year.

NPR: Legal Battle over Floor from 'Saturday Night Fever'

Freud bought the Corot portrait at an auction in 2001 and it had hung on the top floor of his London home.

BBC: Lucian Freud donates Corot and Degas works in lieu of tax