Temptations are becoming rare in Old Master drawings, once available in the thousands and now reduced to a few pickings, mostly of an indifferent kind. One enchanting sketch by Jan van Goyen caught my eye on the stand of William Noortman at Maastricht. Characters drawn from life with a sense of fun gave a very different glimpse into the oeuvre of the 17th-century Dutch master of riverside landscapes. The €18,000 ($24,000) price tag would have seemed extravagant three decades ago. As the market now stands, it was modest. The drawing was sold at the private viewing on March 12.

While it is still possible to form consistent collections of masterpieces in Old Masters, barring celebrities, this is no longer true in Impressionist and modern art, which has been relentlessly pursued for the last four decades, leaving only scattered remains in private hands. Art lovers who only wish to live with one or two very beautiful paintings can still do it, if they look sharply enough.

In the New York May sales, so thin on desirable Impressionist art, one ravishing Monet, Voilier sur le petit bras de la Seine, Argenteuil, miraculously stood out at Sotheby’s. Its delicate greyish-green, amber and very pale blue hues conveyed the cool, hazy atmosphere of an early spring day along the river Seine. The picture was painted in 1872. This is the crucial year when Monet produced his famous "Impression" of a rising sun, to which Impressionism owes its name, coined soon after by a French art critic. It once formed part of the legendary Horace Havemeyer collection. The modest estimate of $1.2 million to $1.8 million, plus the sale charge, reflected the experts’ awareness that the subtle touches of Impressionism in its emerging phase are now lost on many of our contemporaries who prefer works with an instant punch. The Monet realized $3.49 million, a price that was still astonishingly reasonable at that level of quality.

For those who want to collect masterpieces on a truly large scale, Chinese art is the most rewarding, not to say the only hunting ground.

It may sound like a paradox, given the exponential rise in the number of collectors, both in mainland China and in the overseas communities. So far, however, the impact of their presence in the Western markets has chiefly made itself felt on the later periods of Chinese art, from the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) to the early 19th century. Add that anything provably linked with the Palace — as demonstrated, for example, by certain reign marks painted underglaze on porcelain — triggers wild competition among Chinese bidders.

From the perspective of Western (and Japanese) connoisseurs, all this leaves aside much of the greatest in Chinese art. Sublime pieces could be acquired this past season, ranging from Shang bronzes of the late 12th and 11th centuries B.C. to Tang and Song pottery and porcelain from the late 7th to early 13th centuries.

The most stunning pieces surfaced in New York on March 18, as Christie’s dispersed large consignments from collections formed long ago. This made them particularly attractive because the 1970 cutoff date, established by the UNESCO Unidroit Convention, is increasingly seen by experienced market hands as a time limit beyond which the acquisition of works of art exported from the country of origin without official permit is fraught with long-term risks. Restitution claims might be made in the future, particularly concerning early bronzes and ceramics illicitly dug up from underground caches, which are never accompanied by any permits. These are in real danger of being branded as "stolen goods," with the additional opprobrium of having involved the irreparable loss of the archaeological context, thus destroying the unwritten documentation of cultural history.

Some of the high prices paid for works demonstrably sold in the Western market prior to 1970 probably reflected this fear of a threat hovering over post-1970 exports from China.

A marvelous tripod bronze vessel of the 12th or 11th century B.C. went up to $86,500. It had been bought by the late Arthur M. Sackler from J. T. Tai & Co. on March 24, 1965. The mesmerizing power of the stylized feline mask, called taotie, which is cast in low relief on the sides, is difficult to resist. This particular type of Shang bronze does not seem to have been included among the more recent finds that began to flood the Western market in the early 1980s. Splendor aside, the tripod bronze was a rarity.