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"The market for Impressionist and Modern art took a nasty hit this evening at Christie\u2019s, thanks to a bloated, overly shopped, and over-estimated group of 82 paintings and sculptures. Registering the steepest buy-in rate for an evening sale in recent memory, 31 lots bombed for a shocking buy-in rate of 38 percent by lot and 45 percent by value.The performance comes close to that of the dark, post-crash November 2008 evening sale when the house made $146.7 million and suffered a 44 percent buy-in rate by lot for the 81 lots offered. In this week\u2019s sale, Christie\u2019s tallied $140,773,500, compared to unrequited expectations of $211.9-304 million. One artist record was set, three works sold for over $10 million, and, of the pruned group of 51 that sold, 34 made over a million dollars.Last November, Christie\u2019s evening sale made $231.4 million against pre-sale expectations of $198.3-286.2 million and turned in a much slimmer buy-in rate of 20 percent by lot.To get an instant snapshot of Tuesday\u2019s casualty-rich evening, of the 11 Pablo Picasso works offered, seven failed to sell, including \u201CFemme endormie\u201D from 1935, a portrait of the sleeping Marie-Therese Walter, usually a bulletproof subject. Another star lot, Edgar Degas\u2019s iconic, if posthumous, bronze sculpture \u201CPetite danseuse de quatorze ans,\u201D complete with a muslin fabric skirt and satin hair ribbon, crashed at an imaginary $18.5 million (est. $25-35 million). The same work last sold at Sotheby\u2019s London in June 2000 for \u00A37.7 million ($11,598,163). Expectations on both the seller and auction house were wildly off-base, contributing to a rocky start of the premier auction season.\u201CIt was the headline casualty of the evening,\u201D admitted Conor Jordan, head of Christie\u2019s Impressionist and Modern art department, in a sobering post-sale news conference. \u201CThe estimate was seen as too aggressive.\u201D Prior to this evening, seven of the Degas bronzes sold at auction for more than $10 million, and the top price \u2014&amp;nbsp;\u00A313.3 million ($18.9 million) \u2014 was set at Sotheby's London in February 2009.Along with the drum roll of buy-ins and imaginary chandelier bids announced with thespian vigor by auctioneer Christopher Burge, who tried hard to keep the evening going, there were the odd bursts of bidding action in the room and on the telephone. Max Ernst\u2019s incredible cover lot, \u201CThe Stolen Mirror,\u201D a 1941 Surrealist masterpiece that the artist lived with for many years, and which came fresh to the market from his heirs, sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for a record $16,322,500 (est. $4-6 million). It crushed the previous mark, set at Christie\u2019s London last June when \u201CLa chute de l\u2019ange\u201D from circa 1923 made \u00A32,729,250 ($4,429,162).That an Ernst would rank as the top lot of an evening sale says something about the market \u2014 namely that Surrealism is hot, if the quality and rarity are apparent.\u201CI think the market is good for properly priced, good quality paintings and sculpture,\u201D said London dealer Jonathan Green of the Richard Green Gallery, as he exited the salesroom. \u201CBut if it is overpriced or not top-quality, there doesn\u2019t seem to any interest. The market becomes much more selective in challenging times.\u201D Green bought Alfred Sisley\u2019s cloud-bedecked 1887 landscape \u201CLa fenaison-Apres-midi de Juin\u201D for $3,330,500 (est. $2.5-3.5 million) and Henry Moore\u2019s petite, 6 ?-inch-high \u201CFamily Group,\u201D a lifetime bronze cast conceived in 1944, for $482,500 (est. $300,000-500,000).Another bright spot amid the doom and gloom came courtesy of an anonymous, elegantly clad woman who, seated next to her lookalike daughter, calmly bought three major works for a cumulative mini shopping spree of $18,055,000. Taking cues from a cell phone glued to her ear, the bidder bought Amedeo Modigliani\u2019s elongated portrait \u201CLa blonde aux boucles d\u2019oreille\u201D from circa 1918-1919 for $8,146,500, Picasso\u2019s Dora Maar portrait \u201CFemme assise\u201D from 1938 for $5,122,500 (est. $4-6 million), and Tamara de Lempicka\u2019s Art Deco-influenced 1931 portrait of a highly stylized couple, \u201CIdylle (Le Depart),\u201D for $4,786,500 (est. $3-4 million).The Modigliani, for example, last sold at Christie\u2019s New York in November 1985 for a hammer price of $528,000.Buttonholed moments after the two-hour sale, just as she was wrapping herself in her glistening fur stole, the bidder declined to give her name but acknowledged the purchases were for a private collection. \u201CWe don\u2019t have names,\u201D she jested. \u201CAu Revoir, merci.\u201DChristie\u2019s partially identified the geographic location of the buyer in a post-sale summary, describing the origin as \u201CSouth American private.\u201DThere was another flourish of market power as Picasso's famed 1937 etching, the grief-stricken and weeping  La femme qui pleure, I,  sold for a whopping $5,122,500 (est. $1.5-2.5 million), a record for a single print at auction. Still, it was odd to offer a multiple, number three from an edition of 15, in an evening sale of paintings and sculpture.Strong showings elsewhere included an early, polished bronze Constantin Brancusi sculpture, \u201CLe premier cri,\u201D conceived by artist in 1917 and famously owned long ago by Henri-Pierre Roche, the French author of \u201CJules et Jim,\u201D who also introduced Gertrude Stein to Picasso. It sold to a telephone bidder for $14,866,500 (est. $8-10 million). Larry Gagosian was the underbidder.Curiously, other major sculptures couldn\u2019t find buyers, such as Alberto Giacometti\u2019s overestimated \u201CFemme de Venise VII\u201D from a 1957 lifetime cast, which died at an imaginary $8.2 million bid (est. $10-15 million).To match what felt like a surreal evening, two classic works by Ren\u00E9 Magritte also found favor. The artist\u2019s nighttime hallucination \u201CLa fin du mond,\u201D from 1963, made $7,026,500 (est. $4-6 million), and \u201CLes vacances de hegel,\u201D a 1958 painting depicting an open black umbrella with a glass of water perched on it, made $10,162,500 (est. $9-12 million). The 1963 Magritte last sold at Sotheby\u2019s New York in November 1993 for a $500,000 hammer.Still, there was little confusion about the overall result.\u201CThey had too many pictures overestimated,\u201D said London dealer Ofer Waterman, \u201Cand too much of the material was shopped around. It\u2019s an uncertain market.\u201D\u201CThe quality wasn\u2019t really there,\u201D added seasoned London dealer Guy Jennings.The market will get another acid test Wednesday evening at Sotheby\u2019s, and no doubt that house has some hours left to convince consignors to lower their expectations.&amp;nbsp;[content:shareblock]&amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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