The global economic downturn finally caught up with the art market in November during the Impressionist and modern evening sales in New York. As Christie’s and Sotheby’s registered a nasty rash of buy-ins, bottom fishers and born-again connoisseurs who had long been priced out of the market took advantage of the houses’ lowered expectations to buy many works for less than their estimates.

Although it wasn’t pretty, Sotheby’s pulled off the best evening sale of the week on November 3. Using the same strategy it had practiced during its contemporary-art sales in London, the house beat down consignors’ reserves on lots with bullish estimates that had been set weeks before the world financial meltdown. By increasing the chances that these works would sell, Sotheby’s saved its skin, ensuring a high overall take that covered its losses on guaranteed ones.

Even so, in this tough-love market, hammer prices for the house’s offerings were 20 percent or more below the low estimates. This trend was evident early on, as the London dealer Libby Howie nabbed Maurice de Vlaminck’s Fauve Le Remorqueur, 1906 (est. $4-6 million), for $3,666,500. "It’s a very good work by him," says Howie, "but I wasn’t going to go any higher."

The new price ceiling kept a tight lid on bidding, as bargain hunters shopped in an almost contest-free atmosphere. The New York gallerist Jack Tilton, for instance, faced little competition for Monet’s reflective landscape Printemps à Vétheuil, 1881 (est. $1.5-2 million), which he nabbed for $1,314,500. And London’s James Roundell got a deal when he scored Henry Moore’s bronze Working Model for Draped Reclining Figure, 1977-79 (est. $2-3 million), for $1,818,500. It was one of 16 lots guaranteed by Sotheby’s, which seemed steeled to letting the items under its control go for below their estimates rather than wind up with unwanted material.

Despite this flexibility, four guaranteed works failed to sell, including Henri Matisse’s striking portrait Titine Trovato en robe et chapeau, 1934 (est. $12-18 million). "Last chance," warned the auctioneer, Tobias Meyer, "unless somebody else bids in the room." The silence was deafening, and the picture crashed at $8.75 million. After the sale, Sotheby’s publicly stated that it had lost $10 million on guaranteed lots. After suffering a hit like that, the house is sure to abandon its high-risk habit of offering guarantees and retreat to its traditional role of agent, not principal.

A seismic shift was obvious in both mood and statistics. Of the 70 lots offered, 25 failed to sell, the highest buy-in rate for a Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern evening sale since 2005. And although the whopping buyer’s premium partially disguised the lackluster tallies, the house’s total take of $196.9 million, excluding the sale charge, was a mere 46 percent of its $347.8 million low estimate.

Notwithstanding the dismal atmosphere, the auction managed to produce records, including one for the costliest picture of the season, Kasimir Malevich’s 1916 abstract masterpiece Suprematist Composition (unpublished estimate in the region of $60 million), which sold on a telephone bid taken by Roberta Louckx for $60,002,500. There did not appear to be a contingent of Russian buyers — whose activity at auction has receded since the collapse of their stock market — vying for the piece. The picture was consigned by the artist’s heirs, to whom it was awarded after years of legal jousting with the city of Amsterdam and the Stedelijk Museum, where it had hung since 1958. Sotheby’s guaranteed the work for an undisclosed but no doubt princely sum. The house backed this up with an "irrevocable bid," an arrangement in which an outside person agrees to pay an undisclosed sum, plus the buyer’s premium, for the piece if no higher bids are received. To indicate the existence of this unusual arrangement in the item’s catalogue entry, Sotheby’s printed a sideways horseshoe next to its guarantee mark.