La Promenade d'Argenteuil By Claude Monet (1840-1926)

An Christie's auction met its sales target, but some important artworks failed to find a buyer.

A Christie's auction offering 47 pieces proved on Wednesday that the art market is still resilient against the financial crisis: more than 63 million pounds ($91 million) worth passed the auctioneer's gavel, beating estimates in part as a consequence of the drop in the British pound. But a Monet painting, "La Promenade d'Argenteuil," predicted to sell for 5 million pounds ($7.2 million), failed to find a buyer, perhaps an early sign that things will get worse for the industry.

The Impressionist/Modern Art sale, the first high-profile show at the auction house in London this year, sold 28.0% of the items on offer at prices above the estimates, 49.0% within the estimate range and 25.0% under the predicted prices. Some 26.0% of buyers were Americans.

"A weak pound helped us tremendously, discounting 20.0% of the value," Thomas Seydoux, head of Impressionist and modern art for Christies in Europe, told Forbes. "Suddenly, [prices] looked really attractive."

But there were initial signs of buyer resistance, no matter how renowned the artists. Claude Monet's 1876 oil on canvas "Dans la Prairie," which was expected to fetch 15 million pounds, sold for a little more than 11 million pounds ($15.9 million). Paintings by high-profile names like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse also failed to reach their expected prices.

The auction was an early sign that this year might not equal the record-breaking sales of 2008. Last September, Damien Hirst, one of the United Kingdom's most financially savvy artists and now the richest in British history, smashed records in a sale that raked in nearly $200.0 million. (See "Bull Run For Damien Hirst.")

With economies crumbling and the financial system not yet fully restored, collectors are ditching trendy art with little meaning or long-term value. On Tuesday, Edgar Degas's "Little Dancer," a bronze depicting a young ballerina, was sold for a record $29.5 million at auction house Sotheby's in London. "There are always those with the money to buy this kind of art but they are not looking for solid investment, solid returns," said auctioneer Ted Owen.

Christie's auction also included works by Amedeo Modigliani, Kees van Dongen, Edouard Vuillard, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

"When you look back and you see the global economic turmoil, the art has also been impacted," a Christies representative said. "But collectors tend to buy with an instinct of passion and desire. These are not shares."