Christie’s finished out the London evening-auction season with a reassuring sale of postwar and contemporary art that realized £19,063,350 ($31,778,604). That compares to pre-sale expectations of £17.4–24 million for the 40 lots offered, of which all but five sold, for an impressive sold rate of 88 percent by lot and 86 percent by value. Of the successful lots, four hurdled the million-pound mark, and 11 made over a million dollars.

The geographic breakdown of buyers was dominated by Europeans and Brits, who made up 65 percent, while Americans trailed at 29 percent and Asia at 6 percent.

While Christie’s easily walloped Phillips de Pury & Companys £5.1 million evening sale result from Monday, it trailed the £25.5 million archrival Sotheby’s made last week for the same number of lots.

Christie’s did set three artist records, though, including one for Alighiero Boettis Arte Povera monochrome diptych Rosso Gilera 60 1232, Rosso Guzzi 60 1305 (1967), executed in industrial paint on metal, which sold to London/New York/Geneva private dealer Daniella Luxembourg for £713,250 (est. £280–350,000). The work sped out of the salesroom like the famous Italian motorcycles from which its title derives.

Countryman Lucio Fontana did not fare as well, suffering two buy-ins: a small, late waterpaint on canvas, Concetto spaziale, Attese (1966), which flopped at £500,000 (est. £600–900,000), and a black terracotta work, Concetto spaziale, natura (1959–60), which died at a chandelier bid of £1.3 million (est. £1.3–1.9 million).

A third Concetto spaziale, dated 1957 and distinctive for its black, punctured background and dynamic yellow strokes, was chased by four bidders to the exact price of the Boetti record, £713,250 (est. £300–400,000). A star for his slashed and punctured paintings and usually a titan in the salesroom, Fontana is suffering in part from a recent run-up in prices that make him something like an Italian Warhol.

Speaking of Warhol, only one example from the Pop star graced tonight’s sale, and it didn’t even make the top 10, though it did sell. The 22-inch-square Self-Portrait (1966), bearing a fabulous screen print and complete with a fantastic provenance (early Warhol collector Leon Kraushar), went to a bidder in the room for £690,580 (est. £500–800,000). The work last appeared at auction at Christie’s London in February 2008, when it was bought in against an estimate of £1.4–2 million that makes tonight’s hammer price look like a bargain.

This market is producing all sorts of new price levels, best evidenced, at least tonight, by the Frank Auerbach landscape Tree in Mornington Crescent (1991–92), which sold to London private dealer Ivor Braka for £881,250 (est. £500–700,000).

“It was up last year and bought in,” said Braka, who outbid Gilbert Lloyd of London’s Marlborough Fine Art and several other bidders. “So it was quite a bit cheaper, about half of what was expected back then. There’s now plenty of room for Auerbach’s prices to move up again.” In fact, the painting was bought in at Christie’s London in June 2007 at £950,000 (est. £1–1.5 million).

Lloyd had better luck with the second Auerbach, Head of Debbie Ratcliff II (1983–84), nabbing it for £343,250 (est. £200–300,000).

It was slim pickings for other London School artists, though that did help what was on offer. A decidedly mediocre and small-scaled Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait (circa 1986–88), which bears a Bacon-estate provenance, sold to a bidder in the room for £870,050 (est. £800,000–1.2 million).

High-end works seemed loopy overall, with the top lot, Peter Doigs 78¾-by-108-inch Night Playground (1997–98), attracting at least four bidders and selling to the telephone for £3,009,250 (est. £1.5–2 million). Although relatively huge, that price was only about half of the Doig record set when White Canoe sold to Ukranian billionaire Victor Pinchuk for £5.7 million at Sotheby’s London in February 2007. London private dealer Suzanne Pollen was the underbidder for this evening’s sale.

Still, the Doig blasted the price realized by the Gerhard Richter cover lot, 1025 Farben (1025 Colors) (1974), one of his magnificent color chart paintings, though not the most pristine, which sold to another telephone bidder for a relatively puny £1,385,250 (est. £1.3–2 million). Another version in the same size and year fetched $4.1 million at Sotheby’s New York in May 2008.

A price-shifting statement was also made for the sale’s only guaranteed lot, Richard Princes Country Nurse (2003), which sold to a telephone buyer for £1,721,250 (est. £1.5–2 million). A similarly sized “Nurse” painting, Man Crazy Nurse (2002), sold at Christie’s New York in May 2008 for $7,433,000, about a million shy of the record £4,241,250 that Overseas Nurse (2002) fetched at Sotheby’s London last July.

All these numbers tell you that Prince’s most sought-after series has significantly shrunk in value.

But that gap didn’t hurt the third-party consignor, London jewelry magnate Laurence Graff, who watched the action from his first-row seat. “I made a bit of money on the Prince,” Graff said immediately after the auction. “There was nothing I liked to buy for my collection in the sale, so I had a bit of fun doing that [guarantee] and made some money so I can buy some more art in the future.”

Even Jeff Koons, who has a show of his “Popeye” paintings opening at the Serpentine Gallery on Thursday, had an underwhelming evening, with three lots selling shy of their low estimates (at least without buyer’s premium).

New York art adviser Kim Heirston nabbed one of those, Walrus (Blue) (1999), in crystal and mirrored glass and stainless steel, for £361,250 (est. £350–450,000). “I got a bargain,” said Heirston, moments after the sale. “The market isn’t bad, it’s just motoring along.”

It’s safe to say that price fluctuations have probably found a foundation to build on, and if sellers are willing to put desirable property back on the market, more progress can be made.

Call it 2006 and climbing.

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.