Work: Henri Matisse – "Les Pivoines" (1907)
Estimate: $8-12 million
Importance: From Matisse's Fauvist period, the work is a still-life with vivid colors depicting a pot of flowers. It was painted two years after Matisse and André Derain began working with bright and bold forms and colors. In 2011, a Fauvist work by Matisse's contemporary, Maurice de Vlamnick, sold for $22.5 million at Christie's New York.

Courtesy Christie's