NEW YORK—Stuck in the quicksand of the art market downturn, auction houses are shrinking estimates and consequently embracing the inevitable market correction. The establishment of these more sensible, curtailed price levels accurately reflects the state of the market and will ultimately catalyze the recovery process. However, during this forthright effort, each market segment is also subject to new scrutiny and transparency, revealing promising signs for some and bleaker prospects for others.

The Latin American art market is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. New York’s Latin American sales kicked off on Wednesday of this week at Sotheby’s, with an evening sale that earned $6,740,000, missing the pre-sale estimate of $7.5-10.1 million. Forty-two of the 56 works found buyers, for sold rates of 75 percent by lot and 66 percent by value. The next night, Christie’s respective sale brought in $11,004,350, falling just shy of its pre-sale estimate of $11.2–16.8 million. Forty-three of the 63 lots were bought for sold rates of 68 percent by lot and 77 percent by value.

The numbers aren’t great, but despite the meager totals, there are positives to be taken away from both sales. At Sotheby’s, six artists set auction records, led by Édouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret’s Procesión de la Virgen, which sold for $278,500 (est. $150–200,000) to a Mexican collector.

Meanwhile, honors for the top-selling lot at Sotheby’s belonged to Diego Rivera, whose Niña con Rebozo (1935) smashed its upper estimate, achieving $794,500 (est. $350–450,000). The work portrays a child, a motif Rivera explored throughout his career, wrapped in a full-length shawl.

The sale’s overall numbers were considerably tarnished, however, by the failure of the top-estimated lot, Mexican-based Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington’s Chiki, ton pays (1944) (est. $1.2–1.6 million), to sell. Desperately waiting on a wavering telephone bidder, auctioneer August Uribe reluctantly asked the salesman, “Sí o no?” The answer was no. The work had previously sold at Sotheby’s London in 2002 for $595,338.

But still, the evening’s low overall sales numbers are a bit deceiving. Half of the 56 lots earned prices in excess of their high estimate, proving that although bidders are sitting out some lots, there is still strong demand for quality.

Christie’s evening sale on Thursday, meanwhile, was bolstered by the success of Latin American modernism: The three top-estimated lots all belong to this category, and all found buyers. Mario Carreño’s Fuego en el batey (1943) set the pace, selling for $2,188,100 (est. $1–2 million) and earning the evening’s top sum. The Cuban modernist masterpiece was extremely fresh to the market, having been in the Ward Collection in Baldwin, New York, for more than half a century.

Five artists featured in the sale recorded record prices, most notably Leonora Carrington, who just an evening earlier was showcased as the top lot artist in Sotheby’s sale. Although that work was bought in, she redeemed herself at Christie’s when her piece The Giantess (also known as The Guardian of the Egg) (circa 1947) sold for $1,482,500 (est. $800,000–1.2 million), more than doubling her previous auction high. It was the first time Carrington had surpassed the $1 million mark. After the sale, Virgilio Garza, head of Latin American art at Christie’s, called the record price “long overdue recognition” for the artist, now 92.

Of course, both sales results are painfully small compared with the glory days of last May. Sotheby’s earned less than a third of its 2008 sum of $21.1 million (though with 56 lots, versus last year’s 77). And Christie’s auction brought in just 41.3 percent of its previous $26.6 million total (with 63 lots, compared with last year's 80).

Compared with last November’s Latin American sales, though, both houses did better in terms of both sales rate by lot (Sotheby’s: 75 versus 57 percent; Christie’s: 68 versus 65 percent) and value (Sotheby’s: 66 versus 65 percent; Christie’s: 77 versus 45 percent).