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Christie's  realized 176,986,000 pounds ($289 million) for its sale of Impressionist, modern and Surrealist art held in London on February 5, 2014, the highest total ever reached for one session in a U. K auction.

Of the 76 lots presented in this sale, 86 percent were sold especially thanks to their provenance and because most paintings offered for sale had not been on the market for many years.

Several of the top lots came from a private Swiss collection reunited between the early 1920s and the 1970s  with pieces bought or received by their owners  directly from the artists.

Estimated between 12 and 18 million pounds, Juan Gris's 1915 "Nature Morte a la Nappe a Carreaux (The Checked Tablecloth)" showing a newspaper, a guitar and grapes sold for 34,8 million pounds, almost doubling the previous auction record for the Spanish artist which stood at 28,6 million USD for a canvas depicting a violin and a guitar sold in 2010 at Christie's in New York. This  large-scale landmark painting by Gris dates from 1915, a watershed year in which he shifted further from his earlier Analytical Cubism to the more lyrical Synthetic Cubism. The importance of this picture, which is over a metre tall, is reflected in the fact that it has featured in a number of significant collections since its execution, including that of one of the greatest patrons of Cubism, Dr. G.F. Reber of Lausanne. Gris' move away from Analytical Cubism is demonstrated in the exuberant energy of this painting which features an explosion of objects, seemingly radiating from a point in the lower centre of the composition. There is a sense of dynamism to this composition which contrasts with the more static still life works that he often created prior to 1915. It was painted in March, only a few months after Gris had returned to Paris, following some months in the South of France after the outbreak of the First World War. Gris had not entirely succeeded in blocking out the War in this painting, depicting a copy of Le Journal and deliberately showing the ominous subtitle: 'Communiqués officiels‟. This magnificent still life was previously bequeathed to the anonymous Swiss collectors by the eminent Professor Doctor Wilhelm Löffler.

Another painting from the Swiss collection, Piet Mondrian's 1930 "Composition No. II With Blue and Yellow," went for 12,4 million pounds while Joan Miro's "L'Oiseau-Nocturne (Nocturnal Bird)" from 1939 went for 2.7 million pounds, almost doubling its estimate.

While Alberto Giacometti's bronze sculpture titled "Trois Hommes marchant"  and cast in 1951 sold for 9,042 million pounds, Picasso's painting titled " Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil, 20 November 1955" depicting his mistress Jacqueline Roque dressed as an odalisque went for 16.9 million pounds, just over its low estimate.

Magritte's dark painting titled "Les Chasseurs au Bord de la Nuit (The Hunters at the edge of the night)" fetched 6,578 million pounds, just under its low presale estimate.

Previously in the collection of Louis Carré, a Paris dealer, Fernand Léger's 1918 painting titled "Les Cylindres Colorés (The coloured Cylinder)" fetched 12,066 million pounds, well beyond the high estimate of 7 million pounds while Tamara de Lempicka's 1928 canvas titled  "La Chemise Rose II"  estimated at 2,5 million pounds and Picasso's small stille life of 1937 remained unsold.

Exemplifying pure impressionism at its peak, the gloriously light-saturated painting "Eglise de Varengeville, soleil couchant" by Claude Monet fetched 5,682,500 pounds/ $9,251,110/ €6,830,365 (estimate: 4-7 million). Meanwhile,  "Deux femmes, 1929", by Fernand Léger (1881-1955), went for 5,122,500 pounds/ $8,339,430/ €6,157,242 and "La femme entrant dans l'eau," 1931, by Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) (estimate: 2.5 – 3.5 million) sold for a similar price.

Finally, the top lot of the three works offered from The Estate of Ayala Zacks-Abramov, Henry Moore's"Mother and Child with Apple", conceived in 1956, sold for 5,010,500 pounds/ $8,157,094/ €6,022,621 (estimate: 2.5-3.5 million). This sculpture belongs to a series of works exploring the playful relationship between mother and child which the artist executed in the early 1950s.

Jay Vincze, Christie's International director and head of the Impressionist and Modern Art Department said he was thrilled with the results, especially with the private Swiss collection which more than doubled its pre-sale estimate with world record prices achieved for Carra and Le Corbusier.

Meanwhile, Sotheby's two-day sale of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art fared also well in London where it brought a total of 215.8 million pounds with Camille Pissarro's restituted  work titled "Le Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps" selling for 19,682,500 pounds (est. 7/10 million), a new record for the artist at auction

Vincent Van Gogh's "L'Homme est en mer," which appeared at auction for the first time in 25 years, culminated at 16,882,500 pounds, doubling its high estimate (6/8 million) while a group of ten Surrealist works totalled 17,657,000 pounds (est. 8.9/13.1 million) notably with  Rene Magritte's 1962 canvas, "Le Beau Monde", which sold for 7,922,500 pounds (est. 4/6 million) and Kay Sage's "Le Passage", which rose surprisingly to 4,3 million pounds against  a pre-sale estimate of 90,000 pounds.