Rowdy art handlers — who have been locked out of Sotheby’s over a labor dispute since the summer — blew whistles and shouted insults at the crowds who poured into Sotheby’s Upper East Side auction house on Wednesday night for its auction of Impressionist and modern art. But for all the anger outside the building, inside there was excitement and a great deal of relief as an international crowd of collectors and dealers watched the auction market come back to life.

It has been a week of quick reversals and stark contrasts. On Tuesday night, the Christie’s sale of Impressionist and modern art performed poorly, making Sotheby’s sale seem like a triumph by comparison as paintings by Klimt and Caillebotte, Monet and Giacometti brought prices that far exceeded expectations.

Coming in second had its advantages. Looking at the competition’s results, Sotheby’s experts were able to gauge the market and persuade consignors to lower their reserves (the secret minimums generally agreed upon by the auction house and the seller). Sotheby’s sale was also filled with fresher material that was more conservatively estimated. And collectors responded. The sale totaled $199.8 million, right in the middle of its $167.5 million to $229.8 million estimate. Of the 70 works on offer, only 13 failed to sell. (Christie’s sale on Tuesday night brought in $140.7 million, far below its $211.9 million low estimate, and ended with 31 out of 82 works unsold.)

The evening’s star work was “Litzlberg on the Attersee,” a colorful Klimt landscape painted around 1914-15 that made $40.4 million. It had been hanging in the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Austria, before being returned to George Jorisch, a retired camera store manager from Montreal whose great-uncle and great-aunt had owned it before it was seized during World War II.

The painting was expected to sell for around $25 million, but five people ended up competing for it. Eventually it came down to one telephone bidder against David Lachenmann, a Zurich dealer, who won the painting.