Sotheby’s had a rough time of it this past week when it attempted to auction off an impressive array of still lifes and landscapes from the house’s “old masters” department. “Only half the offerings sold, bringing in a total of $5 million, below the $7 million-to-$10 million presale estimate. This was, however, only a small portion of two days of back-to-back old-master auctions at Sotheby’s, Thursday and yesterday, which brought more than $70 million.” So what makes one auction a success and another a failure? It’s about far more than the quality of the art.