In a stunningly successful sale, Christie’s sold 82 Impressionist and modern works of art for £140 million, or $227 million.

A key factor in the brilliant outcome of an auction in which great paintings were scarce was the inclusion of 41 works consigned by the estate of Ernst Beyeler. The Swiss dealer was one of the most important figures in the 20th-century art trade.

Christie’s made the most of the Beyeler name in its publicity campaign preceding the sale on Tuesday, which realized £44.68 million for 40 works.

Picasso led throughout the sale. The 1946 picture titled “Buste de Françoise,” purporting to portray Picasso’s companion Françoise Gilot, comes too close to spoofy caricature and is a bit too clumsy, albeit deliberately so. It nearly matched a hugely ambitious estimate, rising to £10.68 million.

Beyeler’s name was most effective in glamorizing works such as prints of a sophisticated order that usually appeal to a limited public. A complete suite of 45 etchings and dry points executed between 1919 and 1955 was published in 1961 by the Paris gallery Louise Leiris in an edition of 50 under the title “La caisse à remords.” Estimated to be worth £80,000 to £120,000 plus the sale charge, it made £337,000.

Eventually Beyeler’s name glamorized all the works consigned by the foundation, regardless of author or period. Renoir’s painting of a woman reclining, “La Source,” painted around 1902 as a kind of Impressionist-style exercise in kitsch, went for £5.08 million despite the continuing decline of Impressionism.

The Beyeler name only failed to rescue one picture, a Monet offered under the title “Nymphéas.” The painting is stamped with the Impressionist artist’s signature supplied by the executors of the artist’s estate on the works found in his studio. Monet apparently gave up on this one, which is confused and looks half-finished. So did the bidders, who did not budge as the auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen called out in vain “£15 million.”

Christie’s brilliant commercial feat was to tag on to the Beyeler consignment another 51 works from various owners and to maintain the momentum the Beyeler pictures had achieved.

Two Picassos done in a violently Expressionist caricatural style soared to extravagant heights. “Jeune fille endormie” of 1935 made £13.48 million, nearly matching the upper end of a highly optimistic estimate. Two lots further, it was outdistanced by “Femme assise, robe bleue” dispatched on Oct. 25, 1939, as World War II began. An angry Picasso dashed off a distorted face that seems to have sprung out of a nightmare. Christie’s hoped it might rise to £8 million plus the sale charge. It made £17.96 million, double the high estimate.

German school paintings were the great beneficiaries of the bullish mood that possessed bidders throughout the session. Few expected August Macke’s “Im Bazar,” painted in 1914, to set a world auction record for the artist. It is very small, a handicap compounded by the fact that it is a watercolor on paper and therefore can only be exposed to light for limited periods. Worse, far from being in Macke’s violent Expressionist style for which the German artist is sought after, “Im Bazar” is in a bland style influenced by Cubism. It rose to £3.96 million, four and a half times the high estimate.

Paul Klee’s “Tänzerin” (A Dancer), painted in 1932 in a Surrealist spirit with a touch of cartoon-style fun, also set a world record for the painter as it brought £4.18 million.

By contrast, Impressionism fared poorly, although represented by a few remarkable landscapes. Monet’s admirable “Chemin de halage à Granval,” painted in 1885, sold only just for £2.5 million, missing the low estimate.

It was a fine day for the auction house, which sold many second-division works at phenomenal prices, and an even greater day for those who recognize masterpieces when one or two happen to come their way.