A handout photo, provided to the media on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, shows a painting by Claude Monet entitled ''La Plage a Trouville'', 1870

London auction houses will offer a record 624 million pounds ($1.2 billion) of art this summer, hoping buyers from emerging markets will keep shoring up demand.

Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti pieces will be among the items on offer at Impressionist and modern auctions. Wealthy buyers from Russia and elsewhere last month shrugged off economic slowdown to pay record prices in New York.

``During the 1990s, most of the top lots at a London Impressionist sale would have gone to Americans,'' said Helena Newman, vice chairman of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's London, in a telephone interview. ``Over the last two years new buyers have come in looking for great Impressionist pictures.''

Christie's International will offer 81 lots that it estimates will fetch 127 million pounds on June 24. A 1919 Monet water lily painting, estimated at 18 million pounds to 24 million pounds, will be the most highly valued Impressionist work for auction in London. The next evening, Sotheby's will offer 56 modern and Impressionist works that may fetch 97 million pounds.

Russian buying was conspicuous at Sotheby's 117-million- pound Impressionist sale in London in February. Franz Marc's 1910 canvas, ``Grazing Horses II,'' sold for a record 12.3 million pounds to a Russian telephone bidder. Eighty-seven percent of the lots were bought by Europeans, including Russians, said Sotheby's.

Dollar Effect

``There are fewer American buyers because of the weakness of the dollar,'' Olivier Camu, head of Christie's Impressionist and modern department, said in an interview. ``The strength of the euro also makes Americans comfortable about selling in London.''

Christie's has 17 works from the estate of the Indiana collectors J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller worth up to 52.6 million pounds. The group, which has been guaranteed a minimum price, includes Monet's ``Le Bassin aux Nympheas'' and works by Henri Matisse, Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Henry Moore estimated at between 2 million pounds and 4 million pounds.

The 6-foot, 7-inch wide Monet, one of a group of four large- scale signed water lily paintings the artist sold in 1919, has not appeared at auction since 1971.

``That's exactly the sort of work that Russian collectors want,'' said London dealer Alan Hobart in a telephone interview. ``They're bound to go for it.''

In 2001, Hobart paid $14.6 million with fees at Sotheby's New York for Monet's 1902 ``Le Parlement, Soleil Couchant,'' according to Artnet.com, which tracks auction results.

Other works at Christie's auction include the c.1880 Edgar Degas pastel, ``Danseuses a la Barre,'' which is expected to fetch as much as 6 million pounds, and the c.1912 Natalia Goncharova canvas, ``Les Fleurs,'' expected to reach 4.5 million pounds.