The U.S. art market appears to be on the mend. The major fall art auctions may not have sold everything on offer, but collectors showed a renewed willingness to bid up top examples of artists' work. Dealers also said inflation fears and expectations of higher bonuses in the financial markets stoked strong bidding.

New York's two chief auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's International, brought in about $596 million combined from their semi annual sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in the past two weeks. The total surpassed the houses' $409 million spring sales in May, a gain that could signal a measure of returning confidence in high-end art values.

The mood among collectors grew increasingly upbeat as the two weeks of sales progressed. At Sotheby's contemporary art sale Wednesday night, a Warhol silkscreen sold for $43.7 million, more than triple its high estimate. At a lively sale of modern and Impressionist art the week before at Sotheby's, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture sold for $19.3 million, well over its $12 million high estimate.

At Christie's, the results were more modest. The house fell short of presale estimates at its Impressionist sale and modern art evening sale Nov. 3, but it performed solidly at Tuesday's post-war and contemporary auction, led by a Peter Doig painting that sold for $10.1 million.

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Auction houses have been struggling to secure enough top material to entice bidders, as the economic downturn forces them to rely heavily on individuals selling art for personal reasons.

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The company has seen its credit ratings downgraded to junk status amid concerns about near-term covenant violations and a decline in the world-wide art-auction market. In June, Sotheby's struck a deal that would lower the borrowing limit on its credit line by $100 million but raise the interest rate it pays on its borrowings. The company also said it is in discussions about a new credit line with an expiration date beyond September 2010 to replace its existing facility.

The $61.4 million total was about a quarter of the tally of a year ago and well below the auction house's low estimate of $81.5 million. Picasso's robin-egg blue portrait of the artist's daughter and a bronze cat by Swiss sculptor Giacometti had each been estimated to fetch up to $24 million.

"They took a big hit in terms of credibility by not selling those two pieces," said Andrea Crane of Gagosian Gallery. "Those estimates were way too aggressive." A packed crowd couldn't mask the mood. Yawns and raised eyebrows littered the suited and Louboutin-shod spectators, as Sotheby's had its smallest tally for the category since the $33.1 million two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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The Picasso was offered by William Achenbaum, a New York real-estate developer and chairman of Gansevoort Hotel Group, according to a dealer with knowledge of the collector’s holdings, who declined to be named. Achenbaum was an investor with Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.