Impressionist auction draws $395 million in N.Y.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The fall art auctions got off to a solid start on Tuesday as Christie's achieved the second-largest result ever for Impressionist and modern art, with new records for Matisse, Pissarro and Signac all factoring in the sale's $395 million total.

Fears that deteriorating housing and credit markets would find the big spenders failing to raise their paddles were eased somewhat as bidders competed determinedly for Matisse's "L'Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue."

The 1937 work, being offered at auction for the first time, achieved the evening's top price of $33.64 million including the auction house's commission, smashing the artist's record of $21.7 million and far above the $20 million high estimate.

The majority of the 91 lots on offer in the unusually large sale sold for within or above their pre-sale estimates, an indication of market's strength, Christie's officials said.

"Broadly speaking it was an extraordinary result," said Christie's honorary chairman Christopher Burge, the auctioneer. "It exceeded our wildest hopes."

While the sale was not without casualties, notably a Cezanne estimated at $12 million to $16 million and an August Macke estimated at up to $25 million, both of which failed to sell, the aggressive bidding for the top works calmed fears that turmoil in financial markets since the summer would tamp down spending.

"It was fast and furious for certain of the lots," Burge said.

More than 80 percent of the work on offer found buyers.

Picassos commanded three of the sale's top 10 prices, although a nude expected to sell for more than $10 million failed to sell, Burge said.

"Woman's head," one of the artist's famed "Dora Maar" portraits, soared to $16.3 million, nearly twice the high pre-sale estimate.

Christie's executives said they had calculated their estimates after the markets started rumbling over the summer, figuring the jitters into their expectations.

Roughly half of the sale's buyers were American, one-quarter were European and one-quarter classified as "other," but usually mainly Asian.

Three works sold for more than $30 million, including Modigliani's "Portrait of Oscar Miestchaninoff" and Picasso's "Crouching woman in Turkish costume (Jacqueline)," which each sold for $30.84 million. Both works had been estimated at about $25 million, and the Modigliani fell just shy of the artist's record.

Pissarro's "The Four Seasons" fetched $14.6 million and broke the artist's record, while Paul Signac's "Cassis: Cape Canaille" also set a new mark when it sold for $14 million.

Records for works on paper were also set for Toulouse-Lautrec, Fernand Leger and Alberto Giacometti.

The auctions continue on Wednesday at Sotheby's.