After a dismal showing at Phillips last night, the contemporary art market convincingly regained its footing at Christie’s tonight, with the auction house turning in a reassuring £45,640,200 ($68,642,861) tally, a notch above the low end of the sale's £40–58 million estimate ($59.8–86.8 million). Fifty-two of the 62 lots offered sold, for a crisp buy-in rate of 16 percent by lot and 15 percent by value. Better yet, 16 of the 52 lots that sold made over a million pounds, and nineteen beat the million-dollar mark.

Unlike much of the action at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale on Monday, there was more depth of bidding at Christie’s, a clear reason for relief for a nervous market. Compared with Christie's other recent contemporary art sales, the sale performed impressively, beating its £39.1 million result from February of this year and cruising well past the £19 million it made in June 2009. Despite the stressed state of the euro, Europeans accounted for 58 percent of the buying by lot tonight, followed by the Americas at 33 percent, Asians at four percent, and the fascinating category of “other” at five percent. (Passports were not checked when bidders returned their paddles after the sale.)

Five artist records were set, including one for Jules de Balincourt, whose upside-down, Jasper Johns-esque map, the 2005 US World Studies II, the first lot of the sale, shot past its £40-60,000 estimate ($59,800–89,700) to £277,250 ($416,984). London and New York dealer Dickinson Roundell and Paris-based dealer Thaddaeus Ropac made up part of the posse of underbidders competing for painting.

YBA star Chris Ofili also hit the record book with his 1998 elephant dung and gold glitter African beauty, Orgena (est. £700,000-1 million, or $1.05–$1.5 million), which triggered a bidding war that drove the price to £1,889,250 ($2,841,432). The painting, exhibited during Ofili’s 1998 Turner Prize show, beat the artist’s previous record, set by Through the Grapevine, which sold at Sotheby’s London this past February for £802,850 ($1,254,217).

On the more classic side, a 1989 version of Alighiero Boettis beautifully embroidered and brilliantly conceived geo-political tapestry, Mappa (est. £900,000-1.2 million, or $1.37–1.79 million), sold to a telephone bidder for a record £1,441,250 ($2,757,208).

At some rare moments it even felt like boom times again, as competition for Roy Lichtensteins sexy 1995 Collage for Nude with Red Shirt — hardly a Pop masterpiece — erupted into a bidding bonanza that finally finished at £2,729,250 ($4,104,792) on a £600-800,000 estimate.

In a similarly rich vein, Jeff Koons 1999 Loopy, a goofy painting from his "Easyfun" series, a serial ode to childhood, sold to his dealer, Larry Gagosian, for £3,401,250 ($5,115,480). It was also the only designated lot with a guarantee backed by an anonymous third party. “The Koons is so gorgeous,” Gagosian marveled, moments after the sale. “The art market is very good,” he said, adding, “Maybe Christie’s had things more appealing to the market.”

Gagosian also snagged the still-controversial Maurizio Cattelan wax and clothes sculpture of two life-size, upside-down, and fully-uniformed New York City policemen, Frank and Jamie (dated 2002 and estimated to earn £500-700,000, or $747,900–1.05 million), which made £1,026,850 ($1,544,382). A copy from the edition of three last sold at Christie’s London, in June 2006, when it made £400,000 ($740,740). It drew intense criticism and even statements of outrage when it was first shown at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York in April 2002 when the smoky specter and memory of 9/11 was still palpable in the city. “I think people laid off of it,” said Gagosian, referring to the relatively modest price of the work compared with other major Cattelans. “It’s a substantial piece, and it’s worth something,” he said.

Christie’s focus on younger artists gave the sale a more rounded feel than the one presented at Sotheby’s on Monday, when that house offered a formulaic line-up of postwar classics.

A poster child of Christie's youth-minded approach was the presence of Matthew Day Jackson, whose market underwent another acid test as his huge and decidedly ungainly turkey vulture creation, Phoenix (Peace Eagle), from 2005 and made of scorched wood, yarn, leather, mother of pearl, and other strange ingredients, sold to a telephone bidder for £301,250 ($453,080), edging out its £200-300,000 estimate ($299–449,000). Art advisor Nicolai Frahm of F/LTD, based in London and Basel, was the underbidder. “I think the market is very strong, actually,” Frahm said as he exited the salesroom. “People are quite tired after a long season, but they came out for this sale.”

Remarkably, Glenn Browns 1992 kitschy and large-scaled appropriation painting, Dali-Christ (after Soft Construction with Boiled Bears: Premonition of Civil War 1936 by Salvador Dali), estimated at £700,000-1 million ($1.05–1.50 million), sold to a telephone bidder for an artist record £1,441,250 ($2,167,640).

Classic, post-war material continued to attract the confidence of the market, with Alexander Calders witty hanging mobile, the 1975 Two Fish Tails, selling to London dealer Ezra Nahmad for £1,441,250 ($2,167,640) on a £1.2-1.8 million ($1.79–2.69 million) estimate. It last sold at auction in June 1993, at Christie’s London, for £95,000 ($140,366).

Christie’s also nailed the most expensive artwork of the week, the glamorous though threadbare silkscreen on canvas cover lot, Andy Warhols 1963 headshot of a purple-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, Silver Liz, which sold to a telephone bidder for £6,761,250 ($10,168,920), within its £6-8 million estimate ($8.97–11.97 million). New York art trader Jose Mugrabi made one bid at £5 million ($7.48 million) before two telephone bidders swatted a few more bids, pushing the work to a £6 million ($8.97 million) hammer price before premium. The painting last appeared at auction at Sotheby’s New York in November 1989, two years after Warhol’s death, when it was bought in against a then-cheeky estimate of $1.5-2 million.

“We had interest right across the globe,” said Francis Outred, Christie’s European head of post-war and contemporary art. “No matter what’s going on in the world, there’s an appetite for art,” he said. “It felt really good tonight.” Actually, it felt like Christie’s had magically pulled a bunny out of a hat, soothing market jitters and leaving the London auction scene with a dash of confidence that the market may recover further.