NEW YORK—In the first of our Expert Eye columns, Mike Weiss shared his expertise with us about what works were worthy of attention as we toured the preview for the School of Visual Arts Alumni Auction, whose proceeds benefit the renowned art college.

Tonight, we went to the auction itself to see how Weiss’ recommendations and predictions bore up.

To be frank, although there was a goodly turn out of artists, collectors and other art-world types, and the food and drink flowed, neither the live auction (conducted gamely by Christopher Gaillard of Sotheby’s) nor the silent auction, which proceeded a little chaotically in the adjacent galleries, was exactly electric.

In the live auction, most lots went for something close to the value that the organizers had put on them. Only one piece, Jake Berthot’s Untitled (1995) had to be bought in, but only one or two greatly exceeded their valuation.

Weiss’ clear favorite had been Robert Melee’s Unidentifiable Suck Lucking Substitution (2006), valued at $7,000; it went for $6,500, probably a bargain.

Weiss also liked the Tim Rollins work Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl (After Harriet Jacobs) Atlanta (2006). Valued at $10,000, it went for just $7,500. Another good buy.

The prize lot, of course, was Elizabeth Peyton’s Pete Doherty (in Hello!) (2006). Here, Weiss’s instincts were right on the button, and after the single bit of real auction frisson, it went to a telephone bidder for $42,000 (against a valuation of $35,000).

Next door in the silent auction a lot of work, some of it quite beautiful, went unsold. This included both Joe Zucker’s Sailboat in Paintbox with Sky Cover (2002) and Zackary Drucker’s Untitled #118 (2006) that Weiss had picked out for special praise.

Of his other recommendations, Thordis Adalsteinsdottir’s Recreating, co-creating, my sweetheart steps in for Akiane (2006) went for $800, against a valuation of $1,500; Katherine Bernhardt’s Untitled Mini (2006) raised $450 (valuation $800); and Renee Cox’s The Liberation of Lady J and U.B. (1996) went at its minimum bid price of $1,000.

Elsewhere, Robert Melee was obviously feeling buoyed up by the success of his piece in the live auction, as he bought both Brian Finke’s Untitled (Bodybuilding #35) (2004) (albeit at its minimum bid price of $350) and Steven Bindernagel’s Parade of Saints and Sinners (2006), a seven-foot-high acrylic panel, for $2,400, which was $200 above its valuation.

Finally, ArtInfo regulars will be interested to know that two of our recently featured student artists gained a lot of interest. Amy Stein’s The Trasheaters (2005) went for $850, right on its valuation, and Michael Bilsborough’s Let’s Just Try It (2006) fetched $950 against an $800 valuation.