Records were smashed at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, along with The Art of the Surreal auction, in London on February 7.  Though not all of the 88 lots sold, new top prices were made for modern masters and Surrealists, for a total take of £134,999,400 ($213,299,052).

A slimmer Sotheby's sale on Feb. 8 totaled £78,893,650 ($125 million), led by a winter landscape by Monet that fetched £8.2 million. The sale's two top lots, Joan Miro's "Peinture" of 1933, estimated at 7-10 million pounds ($11-$16 million), and a rediscovered Gustav Klimt entitled "Seeufer mit Birken," failed to sell.

At Christie's, the work of well-known British Modern Master Henry Moore broke a record for the artist’s sale at auction.  His “Reclining Figure: Festival” went for nearly four times its estimate to sell for over $30 million, and Moore’s “Working Model for Three Piece No. 3: Vertebrae” also went for a higher price than expected. 

Likewise, Spanish Surrealist artist Joan Miro, known for his use of biomorphic forms, also had a work sell for much more than anticipated; his “Painting-Poem,” from 1925, sold for over $26 million (estimate: £6-9 million). Miro’s countryman, Juan Gris, known for his work in analytic and synthetic Cubism, reached a decent sum for his “Le Livre” from 1914-15 which came in under estimate to sell for around $16.3 million.

“Tour Eiffel,” from 1926, by another Cubist inspired artist, Robert Delauney, also broke the sale record at auction for that artist at $6.9 million. 

While it did not break a record, Van Gogh's "Vue de l'asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy," from the collection of the late Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, raised nearly double what was estimated, going for almost $16 million.

Pointillist artist Paul Signac’s “La Corne d'Or, Constantinople, “1907, also made a splash selling for nearly $14 million.   Rounding out Christie's top money makers were Surrealist Paul Delvaux’s “Le Nu et le Mannequin,” 1947, Impressionist Camille Pissarro’s “Pommiers à Éragny,” painted 1894, and Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky’s “Thema:  Spitz” from 1927.