Sotheby's “The Artist’s Two-and-a-Half-Year-Old Daughter With a Boat,” painted in 1938 by Pablo Picasso.

Picasso and Giacometti were magical names a year ago, but at Sotheby’s on Tuesday night, works by these artists went unsold. That included a 1938 Picasso portrait that decorated the cover of the sale’s catalog and was being sold by a victim of Bernard L. Madoff, hoping to raise cash.What did tempt the packed salesroom were well-priced, pretty Impressionist images from a celebrated New York collection that had been lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for years.
The sale kicked off a spring auction season that was far diminished from years past both in number of works and value. On Tuesday, Sotheby’s cobbled together a sale with just 36 works, estimated to bring at least $81.5 million. They actually brought far less: $61.3 million.And that sum was modest compared with six months ago, when 45 lots totaled $223.8 million.(Final prices include the commission paid to Sotheby’s: 25 percent of the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)This spring had been Picasso’s season. Besides an exhibition of his late works at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, which has drawn thousands of visitors since it opened in March, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each put a painting by Picasso on the cover of their Impressionist and modern art sale catalogs, and both sellers were said to be Madoff victims.