NEW YORK, N.Y. (REUTERS).- A pristine Monet masterpiece from the artist’s celebrated “Poplars” series will be featured at Christie’s in May, when it is expected to sell for as much as $30 million, the auction house said on Friday. “Les Peupliers,” the largest from Monet’s famed paintings depicting poplar trees executed during his years in Giverny, is being sold by an Asian collector who purchased it at auction in 2000 for just over $7 million. After a precipitous decline following the financial crisis that hit in late 2008, the art market came roaring back last year with works breaking the $100 million mark, artists’ records being broken and auction houses raking in cash once again. “The appearance of this masterpiece quality work marks the first time in over a decade that a major 1890s series painting has come to auction,” said Conor Jordan, Christie’s head of Impressionist and modern art. “We anticipate great enthusiasm fr