Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Christie's International sold $113.6 million of contemporary artworks in New York last night, half its presale low estimate, as auction prices tumble with financial markets.

Almost a third of the 75 lots found no buyers in a salesroom that included tennis great John McEnroe, actress Salma Hayek and billionaire Eli Broad. Among the rejects was the projected top lot, a self-portrait by Francis Bacon that Christie's had estimated would sell for about $40 million.

``The market is adjusting down,'' said Marc Porter, president of Christie's North and South America, after the sale. The auction followed Sotheby's lackluster $125.1 million contemporary-art sale the previous evening.

Emblematic of Wall Street's changing fortunes, a collection of 16 drawings sold by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard S. Fuld Jr. and his wife, Kathy, brought in $13.5 million. Its low estimate was $15 million. As at Sotheby's, trophy works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst were shunned. Estimates assigned in the spring now seem too high, dealers said.

In an effort to boost sales, Christie's specialists persuaded consignors to reduce reserves, the confidential minimum price that a seller will accept. As a result, 52 percent of the lots sold below the low estimate, an unthinkable statistic during boom times, when lots often sold above the high estimate.

Christie's guaranteed the sale of 39 lots, and 12 didn't sell, with a combined low estimate of $48 million. The low estimate is typically the price an auction house will guarantee.

Americans bought 60 percent of the lots, Christie's said.

Early Guarantee

In August, Christie's gave the Fulds a guarantee for the drawing collection, which included four works by Arshile Gorky, five by Barnett Newman and four by Agnes Martin. The Fulds, who live in Greenwich, Connecticut, have retained the majority of their collection while pruning some older works.

New York dealer Matthew Marks bought a peach Martin drawing, a 1944 Gorky and a de Kooning with three lounging women for a total of almost $1.4 million. He sat next to Louisa Stude Sarofim, chairman of Houston's Menil Collection, and whispered to her while bidding.

Among the Fulds' top lots was Gorky's 1946-47 ``Study for Agony I'' in pencil, crayon and ink, which sold for $2.2 million, at the low estimate. The Fulds bought the work at Christie's in New York in 1996 for $370,000.

De Kooning's 1951 charcoal ``Woman,'' from the coveted series of abstracted female forms, fetched $2.8 million from an anonymous phone bidder, below the $3 million low estimate. The Fulds bought it at Christie's New York in 2001 for $2.1 million.

Prices include a buyer's premium, or commission, of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $50,000, 20 percent of the price from $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent above $1 million. Estimates do not reflect commissions.

Richter Surprise

The evening's surprise top lot was Gerhard Richter's 1989 eight-foot-tall orange and blue ``Abstraktes Bild (710),'' painted with a squeegee. It sold for $14.9 million.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich sold a 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting ``Untitled (Boxer)'' for $13.5 million, above the $12 million estimate. A blaze of jags and strokes, it depicts a black prize fighter, fist in the air and teeth clenched.

The Bacon, 1964's ``Study for Self-Portrait,'' depicts the artist seated on a bed, contorted and paint-splattered. Bacon, king of the brooders, is the subject of a retrospective at London's Tate gallery that comes to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art next year. In May, a turquoise triptych sold at Sotheby's in New York for a record $86.3 million.

Stockmans Sell

The Guggenheim Museum's board president, Jennifer Stockman, and her husband, David, sold paintings by two of the most-hyped artists: Richard Prince and Peter Doig. The Prince, ``Lake Resort Nurse,'' made just $3.3 million, under the $5 million low estimate. The buyer was Giancarlo Giammetti, fashion designer Valentino Garavani's business partner. The Doig, which carried a guarantee, didn't sell.

Takashi Murakami's trippy eyeball-covered mushroom sculpture ``DOB in the Strange Forest (Red DOB),'' estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million, fetched just $3.4 million from art adviser Philippe Segalot. The seller was art investor Adam Lindemann, who had a guaranteed price from Christie's.

``The fear was that the market would be dead,'' Segalot said when exiting Christie's. ``It's not.''

To contact the reporters on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com; Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 13, 2008 02:13 EST