That formula for success was lacking at Sotheby’s November 8 sale, which was also clouded by a 360-point slide in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that day. The evening got off to a promising start, with the first five lots—Egon Schiele works on paper from noted collector Christian Nebehay—attracting lofty prices. The most expensive was Self-portrait with Checkered Shirt, a riveting 1917 display of draftsmanship in gouache, watercolor and black crayon (est. $4.5–6.5 million). It sold to New York private dealer Philippe Ségalot for $11,353,000, a record for a work on paper by the artist. A few lots later, another strong price, $3,065,000, was realized by Auguste Rodin’s bronze Le penseur, conceived circa 1880 and posthumously cast in the early 1920s (est. $800,000–1.2 million). New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch was the underbidder.

All that momentum hit the equivalent of a brick wall moments later when Vincent van Gogh’s important but chronically shopped The Fields (Wheat Fields), from 1890 (est. $28–35 million), carrying an undisclosed financial guarantee, failed to draw any offers and was bought in at a phantom bid. “Are we all done at $25 million?” queried auctioneer Tobias Meyer in chilly tones that met with only stony silence.

The sun-drenched Auvers-sur-Oise landscape, completed just weeks before van Gogh shot himself in that same field, is one of the few remaining works from the period still in private hands and deserved a high price, but Sotheby’s and the owner, believed to be London dealer Desmond Corcoran, overreached. Buyers were put off by the fact that New York’s Acquavella Galleries, like countless other dealers over the past decade, had been trying to sell it.

It’s hard to pin blame on a single picture or its fantasylike guarantee, but the van Gogh buy-in pretty much killed the evening. The debacle, however, wasn’t close to the bloodbaths that occurred in the early 1990s, when the previous art bubble burst. In this case, “only” 20 of the 76 lots offered failed to sell.

Besides the van Gogh, pricey casualties included Georges Braque’s large 1953–56 depiction of his atelier, L’Écho (est. $15–20 million), which bombed at $13 million, and Picasso’s La lampe, from 1931 (est. $25–35 million), which burned out at $21 million. The Braque, consigned by the Nahmads, was guaranteed.

“Our estimates were not accepted by the market,” said a chastened and blunt-spoken David Norman, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist and modern art, after the sale. Still, 10 works sold for more than $10 million, and 35 percent of the lots exceeded their high estimates. Among the latter was Signac’s 1907 La Corne d’Or, le pont (est. $2–3 million), a luminous seascape with the distinctive skyline of Constantinople in the background, which earned $4,745,000. Another high performer was Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s exquisite and sensual portrait Juive d’Alger (L’Italienne), painted circa 1870 (est. $2.5–3.5 million). When it last sold at auction, at the same house in May 1983, it made $650,000; this time it fetched a record $4,745,000.

Bidders fought for the few exceptional works, even ones harboring guarantees. Picasso’s rare and monumental bronze Tête de femme (Dora Maar), cast in the 1950s from a 1941 plaster, sold to Giraud for $29,161,000, a record price for any sculpture at auction, achieved with help from the underbidders, dealers Helly Nahmad, of London, and Daniel Malingue, of Paris.

Less eagerly sought-after entries included Paul Gauguin’s 1892 Tahitian composition Te Poipoi (le matin), hailing from the Joan Whitney Payson collection (est. $40–60 million). It sold to Hong Kong real estate magnate Joseph Lau—who last November bought Andy Warhol’s 1972 portrait Mao for $17.3 million at Christie’s New York—after just one phone bid of $39,241,000, making it the sale’s top lot. Franz Marc’s Blue Rider masterpiece The Waterfall (Women Under a Waterfall), from 1912 (est. $20–30 million), made a record $20,201,000. The last time it appeared at auction, at Sotheby’s London in October 1999, it fetched £5,061,500 ($8.4 million).