LONDON—Like the Old Masters sales in New York, the early February week of Impressionist and Modern, and contemporary auctions on the other side of the Atlantic was a source of comfort to an apprehensive art world. The statistics tell the story: Christie’s London amassed the second-highest total for a week of art sales in Europe, £224 million ($440 million), while Sotheby’s Imp/Mod sale brought £117 million ($231 million), the highest total ever for a sale by the auction house in Europe. (Sotheby’s broke with tradition by moving its contemporary sales to the very end of February, necessitating a return to London for serious international bidders.)

On February 4, Christie’s started off the week with an Impressionist and Modern sale that yielded £105 million total ($207 million), with 45 lots selling for over $1 million. The star of the evening, at a price of £5,732,500 ($11.2 million) was Picasso’s 1938 "Femme au chapeau" (est. £2.5 million–£3.5 million), a brown-toned portrait of his lover, the Croatian-born Surrealist photographer Dora Maar. The picture is far more mellow than Picasso’s later renderings of Maar, such as "Dora Maar au chat" (1941), sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2006 for $95.2 million, which portrayed her as a predatory witch. The second-highest lot, Kees van Dongen’s "L’Ouled Naïl" (1910), a portrait of an Algerian dancer, set an artist record of £5,620,000 ($11 million), well above the estimate of £2 million to £3 million.

Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary sale on February 6 totaled £73 million ($143 million), making it the second-highest earning sale in its category in Europe. The top lot, Francis Bacon’s "Triptych" (1974–77) brought an astonishing £26,340,500 ($51.7 million), grazing the artist record but setting another record as the most expensive postwar work ever sold in Europe. Another record was set by Gerhard Richter’s Pop-influenced "Zwei Liebespaare" (1966), which sold for £7,300,500 ($14.3 million). And Italian abstractionist Lucio Fontana’s bright red, slashed "Concetto spaziale, Attesa" (1965), estimated at £3.5 million to £5.5 million), also set a record of £6,740,500 ($13.2 million). Interestingly, 43 percent of the buyers at the postwar sale were from the Americas, compared to only 15 percent at the Impressionist and Modern sale.

Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale on February 5 realized a total of £116.7 million ($230.5 million), and the highlight was a Franz Marc that ended up being the most expensive picture of the week in this category. "Weidende Pferde III" (est. £6 million–£8 million), the last of Marc’s horse paintings in private hands, sold for £12,340,500 ($24.3 million). Sotheby’s had its own Picasso Dora Maar portrait, also from 1938 (est. £6.5 million–£8.5 million), and it sold for £7,412,500 ($14.6 million), likely helped along by its provenance from the collection of noted connoisseur-dealer Heinz Berggruen.

With results like these from both major houses, this market has definitely withstood its first big test of the year. The international buyers aren’t letting the jeremiahs of the financial world suppress their appetite for art.