And speaking of women, a double mark was set when Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova’s fiercely colored and dramatically abstract Les Fleurs from circa 1912 (est. ₤3.5–4.5 million) — hailing from the Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh collection — sold to a telephone bidder for a record ₤5,529,250/$10,870,506. In addition to an artist high, it also claimed a world record for any female artist ever sold at auction.

Sotheby's
Sotheby’s June 25 evening sale was a decidedly smaller affair, with just 55 lots on offer and a lack of what one might describe as blockbuster material.

Despite that handicap, the firm realized its second strongest European result to date in the category, tallying a robust ₤102,246,500/$201,210,887 — a total accompanied by a svelte 9 percent buy-in rate by lot and 6 percent by value. It also hurdled its pre-sale high estimate of ₤95.7 million.

Overall, five lots exceeded ₤5 million and 25 made over a million pounds. Two artist records were set, and a geographic breakdown by lots sold shows that 70 percent went to Europe (with both the U.K. and Russia included), 28 percent to the U.S., and 2 percent to "other."

Unlike at Christie’s, it seemed that a huge proportion of the bidding came from telephones manned by a small army of Sotheby’s specialists and client service providers, which dampened the theater or spectacle on the floor. Still, the house pulled off a tightly organized sale with barely any casualties, and of the five works that didn’t sell, only two — paintings by Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti — carried financial guarantees.

The evening got off to a cracking start with Wassily Kandinsky’s early color-charged composition Park von St. Cloud – mit Reiter (Park of St. Cloud with Horseman) from 1906 (est. ₤350–450,000), which sold over the phone for ₤1,161,250/$2,228,000.

Chaim Soutine’s sultry expressionist portrait Jeune Polonaise from 1929 (est. ₤650–850,000) made ₤2,169,250/$4,268,867, and Paul Cezanne’s petite yet potent still life Verre et Poires, from 1879–80 (est. ₤2.5–3.5 million), sold to another telephone bidder for £4,073,250/$8,015,749, a result that certainly must have satisfied the seller, who bought the work at Christie’s New York in November 2003 for $455,500.

A familiar-to-market Claude Monet also found a new home as the breezy and festive impression La Plage a Trouville from 1870 (est. ₤7–10 million) squeaked by its pre-sale estimates to earn ₤7,657,250/$15,068,702. The present seller bought it at Sotheby’s London back in June 2000 for ₤11 million/$16,566,547; the work last appeared at Sotheby’s New York in November 2006, when it failed to sell against a $16.5–20 million estimate.

Of the seven Pablo Picassos offered, a dynamic interpretation of his lover and muse, Tete de Femme (Dora Maar) from 1939 (est. ₤3–5 million), led the pack at a buoyant ₤7,881,250/$15,509,512.

Sculpture also proved its mettle, led by Trois Hommes Qui Marchent I (1948), Alberto Giacometti’s alienated street scene cast in bronze and from an edition of 6 (est. ₤4–6 million), which sold to another telephone bidder for ₤9,449,250/$18,595,179.

But the topper of the evening was the colorful and uber-decorative cover lot, Gino Severini’s Futurist confection Danseuse from 1915 (est. ₤7–10 million), which danced to a record-shattering ₤15,049,250/$29,615,419. In addition to trouncing the long-held mark for Severini’s Mare danzatrice (1912–13), which made $3.6 million in May 1990 at the storied Lydia Winston Malbin sale at Sotheby’s New York, it also proved to be the week’s second-most-expensive artwork (though still tens of millions behind Christie’s Monet).

“People like colorful, decorative pictures,” said Melanie Clore, Sotheby’s co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art worldwide. “Works like the Severini are appealing to a much broader, global market.”

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.