Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Emil Nolde and Lucio Fontana are among the artists commanding top asking prices at this year's Art Cologne, where organizers trimmed the number of exhibitors in an attempt to improve quality and lure more international dealers and collectors.Barcelona-based Oriol Galeria d'Art showcased a Picasso drawing for 180,000 euros ($284,000) and a Braque still-life oil painting of a pear, two apples, a glass and a knife for 260,000 euros. Salis & Vertes of St. Moritz, Switzerland, offered a pink Fontana work with one of his trademark cuts called ``Concetto Spaziale'' (1962) for 1.1 million euros and a Nolde oil-on- canvas of water lilies for 2.5 million euros.Art Cologne drew just 60,000 visitors last year, 10,000 fewer than in 2006. Its director Gerard Goodrow quit in January under pressure from local dealers, who complained in an open letter about the 40-year-old fair's ``bitter loss of status.'' In February, Art Cologne announced it will scrap a sister event on the Spanish island of Majorca after just one fair.``We can't hide the fact that we still have a lot of work ahead of us and we will continue to improve Art Cologne, both in terms of quality and making the fair more international,'' Oliver Kuhrt, the director of Koelnmesse GmbH, the company that runs Art Cologne, told the opening press conference. ``Despite all the turbulence, the Art Cologne team has done a good job.''artworkFair CompetitionArt Cologne is losing exhibitors and collectors to competing events in London, Basel, Berlin and Miami. The organizers this year chose 150 exhibitors of which about two- thirds are German. Last year there were more than 180 galleries represented.Other German art fairs are also suffering -- Frankfurt dropped its two-year-old Fine Art Fair this year. DC Duesseldorf Contemporary, a one-year-old show, said in February that it won't repeat the event this year because of slow sales.Goodrow's replacement, Los Angeles gallery owner Daniel Hug, takes up his new post on May 1. Hug, 39, said last month that improving the quality of exhibitors and attracting more foreign dealers will be his top priority.Dealers said they were optimistic about sales in Cologne as the private view got under way. Salis & Vertes sold a Frank Stella lithograph before the official opening. Philippe David, manning the gallery's stall, said the mortgage crisis in the U.S. and the stock-market slump have so far had no harmful effect.``If anything, the opposite,'' David said. ``People want to invest more safely. So far, this year has been very good.''Richter, RauschenbergAt Munich-based Galerie Terminus, dealer Alejandro Zaluskowski was offering a Gerhard Richter abstract painting for 3.6 million euros, two Robert Rauschenberg acrylic-on-steel works at 850,000 euros and 480,000 euros and a Roy Lichtenstein painting, ``Apples,'' for 2.95 million euros.``I already sold this yesterday, during a tour of the fair by Deutsche Bank for private guests,'' he said, pointing at Peter Anton's ``Fanciful Assortment,'' a wall sculpture of a box of brightly colored sweets priced at 28,000 euros. ``There was a lady who saw it and decided she just had to have it.''London and New York-based Flowers gallery featured a solo show of the Canadian photographer Robert Polidori's large-format, detailed photos of rooms in the palace at Versailles, costing between 16,000 euros and 22,000 euros each.Dong Jo Chang, director of the Columns Gallery in Seoul, spoke between fielding queries from customers about the price of sculptures by the Boston artist Bill Thompson. The gallery sold three shapes made of urethane on polyurethane in pink, yellow and silver-gray during the private view, at 4,500 euros each.``At the fair in Majorca last year, we sold everything,'' Chang said. ``It was an unsuccessful fair for everyone except me.''Art Cologne opens to the public today and runs through April 20. It is sponsored by Deutsche Bank AG.