New York set for fall art auctions; new Gauguin record expected, Yazzy's at williamverdult.com

According to the AFP.com, New York's fall art auction season gets under way Tuesday, with major collectors from around the world expected to be bidding record prices in the impressionist, modern and contemporary sales.

Among the highlights is French painter Paul Gauguin's "Te Poipoi" (The Morning), one of the post-impressionist's Tahitian works, which has a top estimate of 60 million dollars and is tipped to set a record for the artist.

With works by artists including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol also up for sale, bidding is expected to be competitive thanks to a buoyant art market and a new generation of super rich buyers.

David Norman, co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's, said he expected bidders from around the world, notably emerging Asian economies as well as those benefiting from high commodity prices and a weak dollar.

"The market's been just booming because there have been so many new entrants from so many different regions of the world into the market," he told AFP.

"We used to be almost exclusively reliant on American and Japanese bidders in the late 80s. Today, Russia, China, the Middle East, other Asian countries, India, everywhere is bidding ... The base of our audience just keeps expanding."

The top lot in the sales, which span two weeks, is Gauguin's "Te Poipoi," an exotic depiction of a Tahitian woman bathing under mango trees.

The painting, which Norman described as "a glorious picture in superb condition," carries a top estimate almost 50 percent higher than the current 40.3-million-dollar record for the artist and goes on sale on Wednesday.

"He's always been a very treasured artist but the fact is they're so rare. He had a very short period in Tahiti and so many are in museums, so the appearance on the market becomes such an exciting, rare event," Norman said.

"Anyone wanting to establish a great 19th and 20th century art collection really can't ignore the monumentality of Gauguin in that scheme of things. It's just that access to them is so limited," he added.

"You could wait 10 or 15 years for a picture like this."

Norman said he did not expect a crunch in the US housing and credit markets to dampen the bidding in the sale rooms.

"We're at such a high end of the market and it's so international ... the people with this kind of wealth still have that wealth and there's still a lot of liquidity," he said.

Also in Wednesday's evening sale at Sotheby's is "The Fields (Wheat Fields)" by Van Gogh, painted just two weeks before the artist's suicide and considered to be possibly his last finished work.

The vibrant and sprawling depiction of golden wheat fields under a bruised sky is expected to reach up to 35 million dollars.

Other lots in the sale include "Tete de femme (Dora Maar)" by Picasso, which carries an estimate of 20 to 30 million dollars.

"This is without doubt the most important Picasso sculpture we've ever seen on the market," explained the head of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art evening sales, Emmanuel DiDonna.

Henri Matisse's "L'Odalisque, harmonie bleu," which is expected to fetch up to 20 million dollars, and a series of works by Paul Cezanne form part of the impressionist and modern sale at Christie's auction house on Tuesday.

But as with the spring sales in New York in May, much attention is on the contemporary works, such as Francis Bacon's "Second Version of Study for Bullfight No.1," expected to sell in excess of 35 million dollars at Sotheby's.

Works by Rothko and Warhol, artists who both saw new records in the spring sales, were to head up the Christie's contemporary sale.

Rothko's "No.7 (Dark Over Light)," one of the abstract artist's trademark works in blocks of color, was expected to fetch up to 30 million dollars, while Warhol's "Liz," a portrait of movie star Elizabeth Taylor, carried a top estimate of 35 million dollars.

Among the most dazzling works on offer are Jeff Koons' oversized sculptures of a diamond ring ("Blue Diamond") and a massive heart-shaped ornament, "Hanging Heart (Magenta and Gold)," expected to fetch up to 20 million dollars.