A day after the Masterworks sale of the Taubman collection brought a middling $377 million, at the low end of expectations, Sotheby's hammered down $306.7 million in a more upbeat Impressionist and Modern Art sale.

Of the 47 lots offered, buyers eschewed several gray-toned works by Picasso, Sisley, Cezanne, and Pissarro, although interest was strong for iconic blue-chip paintings.

Billionaire Bill Koch's nude cabaret dancer painting by Picasso topped the sale at $67 million. He bought the rare Blue Period "La Gommeuse" in 1984 for 1.4 million pounds (about $1.7 million). During a 2000 restoration, a painting was discovered on the reverse depicting Pere Manach, Picasso's friend and dealer, in caricature. Picasso was just 19 years old when he painted the double-sided work in 1901. It brought an auction record for his Blue Period and reportedly went to Swiss dealer Doris Ammann.

A Monet water lilies painting owned by Koch also found an eager buyer at $33.8 million.

Another high-flyer was a chubby baby portrait by Vincent van Gogh of his postman friend's child. "Le Bebe Marcelle Roulin" fetched more than double its low estimate to bring $7.6 million. It was one of nine works from the estate of Belgian collectors Louis and Evelyn Franck that brought a total $98.5 million.

A landscape by van Gogh brought $54 million to a phone bidder. "Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé" was one the artist's strongest Arles landscapes.

Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich's “Mystic Suprematism (Black Cross on Red Oval)” from 1920-1922, which hung Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum for about 50 years before its restitution to the artist’s family in 2008, went for $37.7 million, above the low estimate of $35 million.

One of Magritte's signature bowler-hatted men, this one with a crescent moon hovering over his head, brought a solid $6.7 million.

Earlier on Thursday a second sale by Sotheby’s from the Collection of A. Alfred Taubman brought results nearer the high estimate, totaling $42.7 million. The top lot of the sale was a rare work by Richard Gerstl, "Dame Mit Federhut," which was purchased for the Neue Galerie for $3,722,000, multiples of the high estimate and a new record for the artist at auction, according to Sotheby's.

Sotheby's CEO Tad Smith says the auction house is on track to meet the $500 million guarantee given to the Taubman estate. Hundreds of more offerings come in two upcoming auctions, with Martin Johnson Heade’s "The Great Florida Sunset" estimated to bring up to $10 million on Nov. 19.