Western art values dived at a Christie's International London auction last night after two months of financial-market turbulence, while some Chinese paintings quadrupled their top estimates.

Four out of five works by Damien Hirst, the auction world's most expensive living artist, sold for near or below their low estimates. A picture from Zeng Fanzhi's "Mask Series" went to a telephone bidder for 700,000 pounds ($1.42 million) before commission, compared with a top estimate of 180,000 pounds.

Contemporary collectors of the U.K.'s Hirst, Germany's Martin Kippenberger and America's John Currin were among the losers, as an 11-year price boom slowed. Two Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings with top estimates of 2.5 million pounds each went unsold. The top lot of the week, a Francis Bacon nude, just scraped above its low estimate of 7 million pounds, before commission.

People "used to fight for every piece, no matter how important or unimportant, good or bad it was. Now they are more selective," said Vladimir Ovcharenko, owner of the Moscow-based Regina gallery. "It all comes from the financial markets."

The sale missed its top estimate, as 15 percent of the lots failed to sell. At Christie's New York contemporary art sale in May, 5 percent of the lots were unsold. London-based Christie's, owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, is the world's largest art seller, with 2006 auctions of 2.5 billion pounds.

Hirst's Bronze

London dealer Jay Jopling bought Hirst's "Wretched War"(2004), a life-sized bronze statue of a partly skinned pregnant woman, for 180,000 pounds, pre-commission, compared with a 300,000-400,000 pound estimate. As the lights in the King Street saleroom dimmed and flickered, works by Kai Althoff, Eberhard Havekost, Juan Munoz, Basquiat and Kippenberger found no buyers. After the lighting stabilized, two Andy Warhols failed to sell.

Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen asked for patience as the first of nine Chinese pictures came on the block. "Some lots have 15 telephone lines waiting," Pylkkanen said.

Twice during the bidding, which usually rises in small steps, New York collector Larry Warsh shouted a number double or triple the previous bid, then dropped out as the price rose. The two pictures were Zeng's masked man on a beach, and Liu Ye's "The Happy Family," with a trio of winged figures against a red sky, which took more than five times its top estimate of 90,000 pounds.

Chinese Price Rise

Warsh, who has been accumulating Chinese art, paid 893,600 pounds on Saturday for Wang Guangyi's "Great Criticism: Coca- Cola" at Phillips de Pury & Co. He'll sell Basquiat and Keith Haring works to pay the bill, Warsh said. The seller of Wang's image was Warsh's father-in-law, Howard Farber, who made 63 times his cost in the auction, showing how far prices have risen.

"The auctioneer can accept any bid that's offered in the room," said Christie's Chief Executive Officer Ed Dolman, in an interview after the sale, when asked about the price jumps.

U.K. painter Bacon's 1974 "Study From the Human Body, Man Turning on the Light" raised 7.2 million pounds for its owner, London's Royal College of Art, which aims to build a new campus. Christie's top estimate was 9 million pounds pre-commission.

Jopling, who sold 130 million pounds of Hirst art at his galleries in June and July, bought Jeff Koons's "Small Vase of Flowers" sculpture for 1.4 million pounds pre-commission, a discount to its low estimate.

Hirst's "Leprosy," a 2003 panel of dead flies in resin, was valued at as much as 300,000 pounds. London dealer Helly Nahmad got a pat on the back when he bought it for 270,000 pounds before commission.

Hirst's 1992 "Allodihydrocortisol" spot painting, handled at different times by dealers Jopling and Barbara Gladstone, according to the catalog, had a top estimate of 700,000 pounds, and took 520,000 pounds pre-commission. Sotheby's failed to sell a Hirst spot painting valued at 2.5 million pounds on Friday.

Dealers' Stake

Dealers have a big stake in the auction results, as they handle new works by living artists, and trade older pieces.

Christie's opened the sale with mostly U.S. artists who are popular with art-fair buyers, arranged in ascending prices, from Elizabeth Peyton to Currin.

A Peyton watercolor sold at its low estimate. Currin's 1993 oil picture,"Girl in Bed," had a high valuation of 350,000 pounds and failed to sell.

Naked Mannequin

A photograph by Cindy Sherman, whose collectors include billionaire Eli Broad and hedge-fund manager Adam Sender, sold at its low estimate of 40,000 pounds. Christie's had a 60,000-pound high estimate for Sherman's untitled image of a naked mannequin's body parts, which was auctioned in 1997 for $34,000, according to sale-tracker Artnet AG.

"The sale was very choppy," said London collector Amir Shariat, Auctor Capital Partners Ltd.'s managing director. Chinese works "are starting to look seriously expensive."

Christie's two Sunday sales on the last day of the Frieze Art Fair were part of a five-day selling binge through Oct. 16, valued by auction houses at as much as 184 million pounds. Christie's took in 39.8 million pounds including commissions yesterday, after estimating the sales at 34 million pounds to 46.6 million pounds before commissions. Sotheby's evening sale on Friday took in 34.9 million pounds with commissions, compared with a top estimate of 40.4 million pounds before commissions.

Today and tomorrow, Sotheby's and Christie's sell Italian works and lower-priced contemporary art.

At Sotheby's this morning, lower-priced art did well. Steve Lazarides, Banksy's dealer, bought three of the graffiti artist's works at prices above the top estimates. Other Banksys were bid up beyond his reach. "There were a few bits I wanted that I didn't have," Lazarides said.

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