Cautious sellers put few masterworks on the market during this U.S. Presidential election season. Top-tier works that are hitting auction floors this week for the big sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in New York will test the post-election mood --- albeit at the very high end of the art market--- in some uncertain times.

Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips have postwar and contemporary art auctions on deck with about $536 million in offerings, down from $1.2 billion in the same November sales of last year.

On Monday comes Sotheby's marquee lot by Edvard Munch. The Norwegian artist's 1902 "The Girls on the Bridge" is a star piece from a private collection and is expected to bring over $50 million. Munch's record-breaking auction price stands at $120 million for "The Scream."

A Monet masterpiece, one of the last of the Grainstack series in private hands, is offered by Christie's on Nov. 16. It is estimated to bring as much as $45 million. ‘We have been extremely aware of the growing passion for classic Impressionist paintings among our leading Asian collectors,’ remarked Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s Global President, ‘and this work is simply a masterpiece by Monet, the genius of plein air painting.’

Phillips has Roy Lichtenstein's 1994 "Nudes in Mirror," a work that was vandalized in 2005 by a deranged woman when it went on display in Vienna, as noted in the auction catalog. It is expected to fetch $20 million.