UPDATE 1-Sotheby's second-quarter profit falls

(New throughout, adds dateline)

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Sotheby's (BID.N), one of the world's largest art sellers, said on Tuesday second-quarter profit fell 11 percent, but the company beat Wall Street expectations, boosted by Contemporary art sales.

Net income for the New York-based company fell to $95.3 million, or $1.46 per share, from $107.3 million, or $1.64 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.41 per share on revenue of $330.49 million.

Sotheby's said quarterly sales fell 6 percent to $320.2 million, hurt by a calendar shift in the period it reported its summer Contemporary sales from the second quarter in 2007 to the third quarter in 2008.

Sotheby's said sales were boosted by the $86.3 million sale in May of Francis Bacon's Triptych, 1976, which set a record at auction for the artist as well as any work of contemporary art.

Contemporary collection sales topped $469.8 million and Impressionist sales reached $272.6 million in May.

The company estimated a stronger third quarter than last year, boosted by July's Contemporary and Old Master sales and an estimated $130 million from the sale of works by Damien Hirst.

Sotheby's shares closed down 60 cents, or 2.14 percent, at $27.48 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sarah Coffey, editing by Richard Chang)