FIRST OFF . . .

Three paintings by Russian-French artist Marc Chagall were sold for record amounts to U.S. and Japanese bidders at a Paris art auction Monday. One Chagall work, featuring a blue-costumed circus musician on a pink background, sold for $706,812 (the auction’s top price), while another Chagall, “The Red Tree,” went for $674,000 and a third canvas, a watercolor, fetched $105,116. Auctioneer Guy Loudmer said the total sales of the auction--which also sold off works by French Impressionist Pierre Bonnard, Belgian Surrealist Rene Magritte and French Cubist Fernand Leger--were close to $5 million.