Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — The artworks are less flashy. Price tags have shrunk. Yet auction-house executives are bullish about the two weeks of evening sales in New York starting tomorrow.

“We are pretty happy with what we were able to collect,” Sotheby’s president and chief executive officer, William F. Ruprecht, said in an interview. “We’ve tried to put sober estimates on things.”

Projected sales by Sotheby’s and Christie’s International Plc are a combined total of as much as $607 million, down from $1.7 billion just two years ago. The auctions focus on Impressionist, modern and contemporary art.

The art business has suffered since the financial crisis set in last year, with a flurry of gallery closings and sharp declines in global auction revenue. The auction houses have struggled to gather important artworks for sale yet remain relatively sanguine about their prospects.

“We don’t need a TARP bailout over here,” said Amy Cappellazzo, Christie’s co-head of the contemporary-art department. “We feel the market is poised to perform.”

For longtime collectors, profits are still there for the taking. Sotheby’s contemporary sale features Andy Warhol’s black-and-white 1962 “200 One Dollar Bills,” estimated to sell for as much as $12 million. The anonymous seller bought the painting at Sotheby’s in 1986 for $385,000.

Christie’s has a dense, layered 1996 Peter Doig painting, “Reflection (What does your soul look like),” with a presale estimate of $4 million to $6 million. A year or two ago, the painting might have fetched $10 million, according to Gordon VeneKlasen, director of the Michael Werner Gallery. But that’s not so tragic given that the seller, who purchased the painting in 1996, probably paid around $11,000, says VeneKlasen.

Holding Out

Generally, though, it’s slim pickings. “People don’t want to part with their good art,” said New York private dealer Rebecca Michelman. “Sellers have been holding out.”

The auctions begin with Impressionists and modern art. Sotheby’s Nov. 4 sale is expected to total $165 million, highlighted by Alberto Giacometti’s graceful bronze “Falling Man” (1950-51), estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million. The seller is Conde Nast publisher S.I. Newhouse Jr., according to two dealers familiar with his collection. Maurie Perl, a Conde Nast spokesman declined to comment.

Another edition of the same sculpture sold for $18.5 million at Christie’s in New York in 2007, at the height of the recent art bubble. Newhouse has slashed his price. He floated the piece for sale at Gagosian Gallery last fall, before enlisting Christie’s to offer it privately for about $16 million, according to dealers. Now he is willing to take half at Sotheby’s.

Reijtenbagh Collection

Dutch financier Louis Reijtenbagh, who resolved three legal claims earlier this year with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and ABN Amro Bank NV, has consigned a group of 39 paintings, including Monet and Picasso. The collection is estimated to fetch about $40 million.

Christie’s had a harder time gathering goods for its Nov. 3 sale, expected to total as much as $97.2 million. Guy Bennett, the co-head of Christie’s worldwide Impressionist and modern-art department, resigned in June. Conor Jordan, tapped to run the New York evening sale, has had an uphill battle.

Sale highlights include Camille Pissarro’s classic 1903 Impressionist Paris street scene, “Le Quai Malaquais et l’Institut.” Estimated to sell for as much as $2.5 million, the painting was stolen during World War II, and recently returned to an heir of the original owner. The top lot is expected to be Picasso’s blood-red 1943 geometric “Tete de Femme,” with a presale estimate of as much as $10 million.

Dreyfus Estate

Works by Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky, estimated to total up to $6.5 million, are being sold by the estate of Jack J. Dreyfus, founder of Dreyfus & Co., who died in March at the age of 95.

The contemporary sales follow. Christie’s Nov. 10 sale is projected to tally $94 million. A gray 1980 Jasper Johns cross- hatch painting called “Dancers on a Plane” is expected to sell for a low $1.5 to $2 million. The work was a gift to choreographer Merce Cunningham, and is being sold by his estate to benefit his trust. A 1983 six-panel painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Brother Sausage,” is tagged to sell for a robust $9 million to $12 million. Publisher Benedikt Taschen, according to two dealers, is the seller behind three Jeff Koons sculptures going on the block anonymously and expected to sell for as much as $10.8 million.

‘Doctor’s Nurse’

Sotheby’s Nov. 11 sale is expected to total as much as $99 million, and includes 20 lots of estate property from Ohio collectors Mary and Louis Myers, including a mottled de Kooning bronze with a presale estimate of as much as $6 million and painting, and a 1977 green-and-white canvas set for as much as $7 million.

A green Richard Prince painting from his nurse series, “Doctor’s Nurse,” is pegged at $1 million to $1.5 million. Two years ago, it might have been $4 million to $6 million. Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art, urged the collector to re-price at 2009 levels: “I asked the seller ‘Do you want to sell it, or do you want to maybe sell it?’”