Picasso, van Gogh head New York spring art sales

NEW YORK, Apr 28 (Reuters) Paintings by Picasso and van Gogh, whose works have set world price records, lead the annual spring art sales at New York auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's starting next Tuesday.

The highlight of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern-art sale -- expected to generate overall sales of 142 million dollars to 197.7 million dollars -- is Picasso's ''Dora Maar with Cat,'' a vibrant 1941 oil depicting the artist's mistress and muse seated in a chair with a small cat perched on the back.

At Christie's, van Gogh's 1890 portrait of a French cafe owner in Arles, ''L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux,'' an homage to van Gogh's troubled friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin, could well soar beyond its 50 million dollar presale estimate. That is the same estimate attached to the Picasso.

The total presale estimate for the Christie's auction is 144 million dollar to 197 million dollar.

Two years ago Picasso's ''Boy with a Pipe'' sold for 104,168,000 dollars, smashing the auction record for a single work of 82.5 million dollar that had stood since the 1990 sale of van Gogh's ''Portrait of Dr Gachet.'' But while the top lots of the semiannual sales fall in the Impressionist and modern arenas, art-world eyes will be trained on the increasingly hot contemporary art market.

Last fall Sotheby's broke the record for any postwar work at auction when it sold David Smith's sculpture ''Cubi XXVIII'' for 23.8 million dollar, beating a mark set only a day earlier at Christie's that had broken a 16-year-old record.

''We're seeing ever-increasing strength from season to season,'' said Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas. He said the pool of buyers was growing.

David Norman, Sotheby's co-chair of Impressionist and modern art, agreed. ''There's so much discretionary money out there, and also a high percentage of new buyers,'' he said.

SOUP CAN Porter said he had seen ''absolutely no movement away from collectors' willingness to pay significant prices for important works.'' This time around Christie's, which last fall took in 157 million dollar at the biggest ever sale of postwar and contemporary art, expects sales of 113 million dollars to 160 million dollars in the category.

The Christie's sale features a group of Donald Judd works being sold by the late sculptor's foundation which together are expected to fetch more than 20 million dollars.

Other top paintings include one of Andy Warhol's iconic soup cans from 1962, ''Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot),'' estimated at 10 million dollars to 15 million dollars, an untitled 1961 Willem de Kooning work and Francis Bacon's 1956 ''Man Carrying a Child,'' each estimated at 8 million dollars to 12 million dollars.

Leading the way at Sotheby's is Roy Lichtenstein's ''Sinking Sun'' painting expected to sell for about 20 million dollars at a postwar and contemporary art sale pegged to bring in 91 million dollars to 124 million dollars in total. The late pop artist's works have set records in recent years, the current high being 16.3, million dollars.

Also on offer are a monumental outdoor sculpture by Alexander Calder entitled ''Flying Dragon'' (6 million dollar to 8 million dollar estimate) and de Kooning's ''Untitled XVI,'' a 1978 abstract painting (6.5 million dollar to 8.5 million dollar).

Other Impressionist and modern highlights at Sotheby's are Matisse's ''Reclining Nude'' from 1927 (12 million dollar to 15 million dollar), and ''Harlequin with a Baton,'' a late Picasso expected to fetch 8 million dollar to 10 million dollar.

Christie's has yet another pair of Picasso portraits, one of his wife Olga Khokhlova from 1932 entitled ''The Rest'' (15 million dollar to 20 million dollar estimate), as well as his Blue Period work ''Portrait of Germaine,'' which is expected to sell for 12 million dollar to 18 million dollar.

Reuters SY VP1014