At Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale last night the recently rediscovered “Oiseau dans l’espace” (“Bird in Space,” 1922-23) by Constantin Brancusi set a record for the highest price paid for a sculpture at auction: $27.5 million. A collective gasp went up, twice, as two determined phone bidders topped each other again and again to possess the marble bird, thought to be the earliest example of what would become a prominent theme for the artist.

It was the highlight of a relatively giddy sale, in which 88% of the lots sold. Auctioneer Christopher Burge coaxed buyers to bid in creative increments until they reached estimate on most lots. There were more bids from people in the room in the first 10 minutes of the sale than in the entire Tuesday night sale at Sotheby’s, and the total of $142.9 million was just under the high estimate.

“The results were extremely gratifying,” said Mr. Burge. “We were working within estimate ranges we felt comfortable with.” Sotheby’s blamed excessively high estimates for its disappointing sale the night before.

It was a good evening overall for sculpture. Giacometti’s “Femme Leoni” sold for $8.4 million. Conceived in 1947, the five-and-a-half-foot-tall sculpture of a woman was cast by the artist in 1960 and bought that year by the current sellers, Ruth and Harvey Kaplan. This “Femme Leoni” is one of eight known to exist. Henry Moore’s tender, elephantine “Draped Reclining Mother and Baby” (1982) sold for $5.7 million, while Maillol’s sturdy-thighed woman, “L’action enchainee” (conceived 1905) sold for $1.25 million. All these were comfortably within their estimates.

Other major sales were Picasso’s sculptural “Tete et main de femme” (1921), which went for $13.5 million, just above the unpublished estimate of $13 million. Cezanne’s windblown stand of trees at his country house, “Les grands arbes au Jas de Bouffan” (c. 1885-87), went to a phone bidder for $11.8 million, below the auction house’s low estimate of $12 million. Buyers were likely aware that the Cezanne was bought by the seller, Takashi Hashiyama and his Maspro Art Museum, for $7.9 million in 1996.

Modigliani’s limpid-eyed “Donna con collana rossa” (1918) sold to a London dealer, buying for a client, for $4.6 million. Pierre Bonnard’s positively Matissian “Interieur avec des fleurs” (1919) was bid up by a confident buyer in the room, who won it for $5.4 million. It came early in the sale, appropriately after a Matisse work on paper, and set up the Brancusi for its coup.

Mr. Burge started bids on the Brancusi bird low, opening at $4.8 million (the house’s estimate was $8-12 million). A handful of bidders in the room competed until the price hit $18 million, the previous record for the highest price paid at auction for a sculpture (also for a Brancusi). Soon, just two phone bidders were left. Mr. Burge moved in half-million-dollar increments, joking with the crowd while the buyers on the other end of the phones checked their nerve. At the final hammer price of $24.5 million, the crowd applauded. (Final prices include the auction house commission of 20% on the first $200,000, and 12% on the remaining price.)

After much presale hand wringing about Impressionism’s waning market relevance, such works won back pride of place for the late 19th century. Several bucolic Monets incited a flurry of bids, with the wintry “Le Givre” (1875) soaring past its estimate to reach $3.04 million. But the priciest Monet, “Vetheuil – apresmidi” (1901), only slowly inched up to $6.6 million, just below its low estimate. Three Degas pastels also did well, particularly the wasp-waisted “Danseuse a mi-corps se coiffant” (c. 1900-1912), which sold to a phone bidder for $3.8 million, double its low estimate.

Three choice, connoisseurial works from the estate of Carter Burden met with enthusiasm. Balthus’s “Etude pour Portrait de Therese” (1939) sold for $1.8 million to London dealer Richard Nagy. This was double its estimate, but Mr. Nagy said he would have been “happy to go a lot further.” Far from a study, it is a complete vision of adolescent moodiness. Two Schiele drawings of naked women, one fat, one thin, sold over their estimates.

In all, only seven lots failed to sell, among them an offbeat Manet portrait of a performer, “Polichinelle”; the worst Alfred Sisley painting of five offered; and a painting by Magritte, who seems to have fallen deeply out of favor, having also been passed over last night at Sotheby’s.