May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art auction last night in New York totaled $142.9 million, close to the high presale estimate and $52 million more than the previous night's total at rival Sotheby's Holdings Inc.

The highlight came early when an abstract Brancusi, ``Bird in Space,'' sold for $27.5 million, the most money ever paid for a sculpture at auction. The presale estimate was $8 million to $12 million.

The record helped create a momentum that resulted in the sale of all but seven of the 59 lots. A night earlier, 20 of the 65 Sotheby's lots went unsold.

The success of the Christie's International sale, for masterworks as well as well-priced minor works, gave collectors and dealers confidence that the market is still strong for good material. Before the sale, the total was estimated at $107 million to $147 million.

``I had to work to field bids,'' said Christie's Honorary U.S. Chairman Christopher Burge, who wielded the gavel. ``We had very attractive property, sensibly estimated in every instance.''

Following Sotheby's disappointing sale, Christie's spoke with some sellers about cutting their reserve prices -- the lowest amount a seller is willing to accept.

Though Christie's didn't identify those sellers, several major works were sold without reaching their low estimate, including a 1901 Monet that went for $6.2 million, $800,000 under its low. A Cezanne landscape, circa 1885 to 1887, sold for $11.8 million following a presale estimate of $12 million to $16 million.

Smiles, Sequins

Nevertheless, the mood was downright ebullient compared with the Sotheby's sale, where the pained faces resembled the waiting room at a dental office. At Christie's, silver-haired men in pinstriped suits and ladies in sequins and Missoni dresses smiled, applauded and murmured into cell phones.

To no one's surprise, the most expensive lot of the evening was Constantin Brancusi's iconic 1922 ``Bird in Space'' an elegant carved slab of bluish-gray marble and the earliest version of the artist's famous series. The work was touted as a rediscovery, having languished in a vault at a Brussels bank before being stored in the attic of an unidentified mansion.

Prices crept up in half-million dollar increments in a duel between phone bidders before finally selling for $27.5 million. Brancusi also held the previous record for a sculpture at auction, the $18 million paid at Christie's in 2002 for ``Danaide,'' a 1914 gilt bronze abstract head.

Picasso, Cezanne

Sculpture, traditionally painting's ugly stepsister, doesn't usually make headlines. But last night was an exception. ``Femme Leoni,'' a haunting elongated female form by Alberto Giacometti and the sale's cover lot, sold for $8.4 million following a presale estimate of $7 million to $10 million.

Made from a series of six bronze casts in 1960, it was originally sold for $9,000 to Chicago collectors Harvey and Ruth Kaplan, who made their fortune in the scrap-metal industry.

Paintings also sold well last night, though several prized items didn't attract the kind of intense bidding that some had anticipated.

A rare 1921 neoclassical Picasso, ``Tete et main de Femme,'' which had an unpublished presale estimate of about $13 million, sold for $13.4 million. The lush green Cezanne landscape, ``Les grands arbres au Jas de Bouffan,'' consigned by the Maspro Art Museum in Japan, sold for $200,000 under its low estimate.

``I believe everything is product-driven,'' art consultant Thea Westreich said after the sale. ``We're looking at a market that's dried up, so if you want anything great, you need to wait for those pieces to come along.''

All prices reported include the buyer's premium. The estimates do not include this premium.

Last Updated: May 5, 2005 00:57 EDT