Christie's sale of Impressionist and modern art on November 6 was very big. There were 91 lots, which took the debonair and astutely alert Christopher Burge some 2.5 hours to magistrate. By lot 47 (Amedeo Modigliani's 1916 Portrait du sculpteur Oscar Miestchaninoff, which fetched a near-artist's record $30.8 million) I could barely keep the numbers straight--opening bids, increments, order bids, phone bids, saleroom bids, underbids, winning bids, not to mention paddle numbers.

It was about that time that I started fantasizing that there was a Christopher Guest script taking place behind the black curtained stage where men in white shirts and black aprons could be glimpsed placing and removing paintings from the turntable. Delusional thinking perhaps but it seemed like a ripe scenario for Eugene Levy.

Much of the audience must have felt the same way, as many of them made their exodus eight lots later with still nearly half of the sale to go. Nothing personal and par for the course--at auctions dealers and collectors (physically) move on when they've had their fill, they don't hang around out of a sense of politeness. This isn't church or the opera; the only decorum is to air-kiss your peers and pat each other on the back on your way out.

Matisse's L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue (1937)

Larry Gagosian hung on longer than most, taking his leave during lot 81 (a pedestrian Monet being sold by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); he took home Picasso's Homme a la pipe for $16.8 million perhaps for a new Russian client. Christie's owner Francois Pinault stayed the course, looking down on the sale from a skybox window where he could be seen leaning into an outstretched arm as if he were trying to make a move on someone. Overall the crowd seemed unaffected (although perhaps secretly relieved) by the history-making potential of the event--the auction brought in $394.9 million, the second highest total in auction history, surpassing any of last season's offerings, and achieving record prices, including $33.6 million for Matisse's 1937 L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue. Big business CEOs might be dropping like flies, but the art market is still preening.

--Kelly Devine Thomas