Christie's, Sotheby's go head-to-head (3)

"The top lots of our sale are a Soutine pastry chef from 1927, estimated to sell for $16 to $22 million and a Derain, a portrait of Madame Matisse, Matisse’s wife, from the fauve of summer of 1905 where Matisse and Derain painted side by side in Collioure, South of France, and that’s estimated to sell for $15 to $20 million." Brook Lampley, Specialist Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s said.

One of the highlights of the Impressionist and Modern collection is a view of the Seine river, by Claude Monet.

The two auctions also star works from Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollock, and many other masterpieces.