NEW YORK, United States?Sotheby's was set to kick off the autumn art auctions season here with a sale of impressionist paintings Tuesday reflecting surging demand and an increasingly global market.

The worldwide economic downturn has dampened the seasonal face-off between Sotheby's and rival Christie's for the past two years, but signs point to the return of big spenders and an ever-more international clientele.

Connor Jordan, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's, said the global super-rich generally want the same toys: a Ferrari, a racehorse, a house on the Cote d'Azur?and fine art.

"Picasso, Monet, Renoir are on the wish list," he said.

If US and European buyers used to be the heavy hitters, they are now increasingly joined by the Chinese, followed by other Asian, Russian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American collectors.

"People's lifestyles get closer: They buy boats, they drink French Bordeaux," said David Norman, Sotheby's director of impressionist and modern art.

"Mainland Chinese in their 40s to 50s make money and aggressively buy Asian art, but a part of them become more international and want to be diversified," Norman said.

Sotheby's sent a wide smattering of European art to Beijing last week to help Chinese collectors and the public get acquainted.

"For the first time, we brought European art there: 20 pictures by modern masters, not auction material. Five Picassos from different decades, four (Marc) Chagalls, some Monet, some (Edgar) Degas," Norman added.

The auctions start with Sotheby's on Tuesday, featuring Amedeo Modigliani's "Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romaine)," with an estimate in excess of 40 million dollars, as well as works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse.

On Wednesday, it's Christie's turn, with works by Matisse, Joan Miro, Picasso, and Georges Seurat among the highlights. The auction house estimates sales exceeding 200 million dollars.

A Cubist composition by Juan Gris is estimated at 18 to 25 million dollars alone.

The following week, attention shifts to modern and contemporary art, starting with Sotheby's on November 9.

A Mark Rothko abstract painting absent from the market for four decades could lead the sale, with an estimate of 20 to 30 million dollars.

On November 10, Christie's will feature what it hopes will be 240 million dollars? worth of sales led by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, and Rothko.

Robert Manley, head of contemporary art at Christie's, said the good times are back for art.

"It's amazing what a year can make. The estimate sale has quadrupled in one year," he said.