During the auction, dealers continued to step in at the last minute when it looked as if a piece would sell too cheaply. Seated in the front row was David Nahmad, scion of the Monaco art and banking family whose members make up probably the single largest buying force in art worldwide. When a Claude Monet scene of Venice that had once been in Nahmad’s gallery looked as though it would sell for less than $10 million, he popped his hand up. “I owned it,” he said. “I may own it again. It is a beautiful picture.” But he was outbid, and Le Palais Dario brought $10.4 million after being estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million.

Other significant bidders at the auction included the powerhouse Gallerie Giraud-Pissarro-Segalot, based in Paris and New York, which comprises a former top official of Christie’s, a descendant of artist Camille Pissarro, and a contemporary art expert who frequently brokered transactions for luxury-goods magnate François Pinault. The gallery paid $11.4 million for another Schiele, doubling its high estimate. The market for the works of the Austrian draftsman, a protégé of Gustav Klimt, has been radically remade in the past five years by collector Ronald Lauder’s aggressive buying.

The top purchase of the night went to Hong Kong real estate investor Joseph Lau, who paid $39.2 million for Te Poipoi, a Tahitian scene by Paul Gauguin. This was either a relative bargain, given its $40 million low estimate, or a hefty price considering its subject matter—it appears to show a Tahitian native relieving herself into the ocean. It was sold by the Whitney Payson family (former owners of the New York Mets), who have used Sotheby’s for decades and whose offerings have notched some of the auction house’s top prices.

So, is the party over? The consensus among dealers and collectors is that next week’s Contemporary art auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury, which are expected to raise nearly $1 billion, will answer the billion-dollar question.