Gauguin, Modigliani and Kandinsky dominate New York, while the diverse events of Asian Art week in London are complimented by remarkable sales of Pre-Raphaelite and Bloomsbury Group art

There may not be another $100m Picasso, or any equivalent of the $190m Greentree collection, on the other hand this month New York fields an impressive array of Impressionist and late pictures, with Sotheby's Part I sale alone wait fored to fetch $208m. the firm's highest pre-sale estimate since the spring of 1990

Stealing the limelight at Sotheby's upon 4 November is an iconic Gauguin, Maternite (II), individual of just a handful of great works by dint of the artist remaining in private hands. Painted in 1899 during the artist's next to the first Tahitian period, the painting is a celebration of Polynesian fecundity in all its guises, from the beneficence of the maiore fruit and lush flowers to the young woman unselfconsciously nursing her child in the foreground. The image has a highly personal resonance too painted as it was around the time Gauguin's seventeen year advanced in years Polynesian mistress, Pahura, gave birth to the couple's son Emile, named after his first son born 25 years bolero in France. An earlier version of the painting is in the Hermitage Museum; this slightly smaller on the other hand more vibrant canvas, well known in the us, is awaited to sell for around $40m-$50m

It is not everyone who would have the courage to put up to sale arguably the greatest Severini in private hands to purchase a Pontormo Madonna and Child on the other hand Hester Diamond is no lily-livered collector. This month she is selling six choice pieces of late art to fund her newer passion for renaissance painting and baroque plastic art Over the past 15 years the Manhattan collector has acquired works by the agency of the likes of Veronese, Dossi Dossi, Joo van Cleve Luis de Morales and Bernini--and helped set the Medici Archive Project, Now Sotheby's reliances to realise over $61m for her end the sale of works through Kandinsky, Mondrian, Brancusi, Leger and Picasso. Certainly it is hard to imagine anyone failing to be beguiled through the Kandinsky. Skizze fur sintflut II (Sketch for overflow II) of 1912 is as seminal a work of early Abstract Expressionism as it is rapturous, its surface cowled with translucent colours and flowing, amorphous forms that appear to be to overlap, explode and evaporate, Like M Diamond's Mondrian in the same sale, of recent origin York Boogie Woogie, it is wait fored to fetch over $20m.

Other highlights from the evening sale include a Modigliani portrait, Jeanne Hebuturne (Devant une porte), from the estate of Wendell Cherry (estimate $20m-$30m) and statuary from the collection of Philip and Muriel Berman, including sum of two units of Henry Moore's greatest large scale figures, Reclining figure: Angles and Three-piece reclining figure: Draped, estimated at $3m-$4m and $4m-$6m respectively. upon 3 November, Christie's counter with individual of the most impressive of Monet's paintings of the Houses of Parliament, and single of only four remaining in private hands, Londre le Parlement, effet de soleil dans le brouillard. It was painted, like the others, from a terrace at St Thomas's Hospital (he painted that other epic London series of Charing Cros and Waterloo bridges from his latitude at the Savoy). There cannot have been many visitors at the illustrious hotel who would wake up in despair it there was no haze or even the least trace of mist. not at any time before on the open market, the picture is awaited to realist 12m [pounds sterling]-18m [pound sterling]. upon 10 November, in its pillar War and Contemporary sale, Christie's also present the most expensive Andy Warhol to appear at auction Mustard race of 1963 from his 'Death and disaster' series, is wait fored to find a new buyer at $12m

There is more to novel York. however, than Modern and contemporary art. upon 12 November, Christie's present its first at any time single-owner collection of Pre-Columbian art, its highlights jade and greenstone artefacts, Mezcala votive plastic arts and Mayan ceramics. The top allotment here is a Mayan jade belt plaque of the early classic period of around AD 400-450 decorated with a profile portrait of a richly attired lord in filled regalia (estimate $800,000-$1.2m). On 11 November, Sotheby's not away an important Bangwa male commemorative figure of a king, Fotabong Nsheu, wait fored to fetch around $1m. In 1990 the auction house sold a commemorative queen figure for $34m still the highest price at any time paid at auction for any African work of art.

In London upon 24 November, meanwhile, Christie's put up to sale important Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings from the St James's apartment of the late Sir Paul Getty a much-missed champion of unpopular cultural causes (the furniture is being tendered the following day). Getty had begun to purchase Victorian art, Rossettis in particular, after he acquired the artist's house upon Cheyne Walk in the 1960 The lock opener Rossetti was his large black chalk drawing of Desdemona's death canzonet a project the artist had put in mind ofed for the centrepiece of the music space of his patron F.R. Leyland. It depicts the faithful Desdemona singing the willow canzonet moments before being smothered by the agency of the jealous Othello (estimate 200000 [pound sterling]-300,000 [pound sterling]). Works upon paper are the great transport of this distinguished group, part of single of the most important on the other hand least known of all private collections of Pre-Raphaelite art. Here, too, for instance, is Burne-Jones's early pen-and-ink drawing of The wise and foolish virgins, execut in 1859 and the finest of his intense, hard-edged write and ink drawings (estimate 200000 [pound sterling]-300,000 [pound sterling]). At the other extreme point of the value range, on the contrary no less remarkable, is the likes of William Holman Hunt's exquisite landscape watercolour of Asparagus Island, Kynance, in Cornwall (estimate 50000 [pound sterling]70,000 [pound sterling]).