Gauguin's Maternite II set a new record for the artist at $39.2m

Gauguin's 1899 Maternite II fetched $39.2m (�21.3m) at Thursday's sale at Sotheby's in New York.

A portrait by Modigliani set an artist record, going for $31.4m (�17m).

But Kandinsky's Sketch for Deluge II, estimated to make between $20m (�11m) and $30m, failed to sell - with no bids beyond $16.5m (�9m).

Despite the total, the sale fetched less than expected, with a pre-auction estimate of between $203.5m (�111m) and $275.6m (�150m).

On the Kandinsky, Sotheby's co-chair of impressionist and modern art, David Norman, said he was not too disappointed.

"We can be patient," he said, adding the portrait by Modigliani could not even fetch $600,000 (�325,000) when it went on offer in 1979-1980.

Sale season

"This work's time will come, too," he said.

Mondrian's modernist work New York 1941/Boogie Woogie was another record-breaker, selling for $21m.

And Henry Moore's sculpture, Three-Piece Reclining Figure: Draped, made $8m (�4.3m).

Sotheby's and rival auction house Christie's will both hold their contemporary and post-war auctions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A painting of the Houses of Parliament in London by Claude Monet sold for $20m as part of the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie's earlier this week.