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Sotheby's reveals £150m lot
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 31.01.07
Andy Warhol's Self-Portrait is estimated to be worth up to £1.5 million
Chaim Soutine's L'Homme Au Foulard Rouge (1921) is expected to attract wealthy Russians
Sotheby's today unveiled a remarkable collection of Impressionist and modern art that it expects to sell for £150 million next week.
Paintings by Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Cezanne and Gauguin will go under the hammer on Monday, and more contemporary art, including works by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein, will be sold on Wednesday.
The feverish state of the art market, an influx of Russian oligarchs and record City bonuses means the auctioneers are expecting sky-high bids.
Much of the Impressionist art on sale comes from three distinguished American collections featuring many masterpieces that have not been on the market since the Fifties.
The collection of the late Revlon cosmetics tycoon Charles R Lachman includes Renoir's Les Deux Soeurs, which has a highest estimate of £8million.
The collection of Texan philanthropists Paul and Mary Haas comprises works by Monet, Cezanne and Sisley, while the estate of New Yorkers Herbert and Nell Singer includes an early portrait by Modigliani with a top estimate of £1.8 million.
Highlights of Wednesday's sale include Warhol's Hammer And Sickle (estimate: £1.8 million) and Self-Portrait (In Fright Wig), painted shortly before the artist's death (estimate: up to £1.5 million).
There will also be Bacon's 1961 double portrait Head (Man In Blue) - estimate £2.5 million - and Lichtenstein's 1973 painting Still Life With Oysters, Fish In A Bowl And Book, inspired by Matisse.
Wealthy Russians, who accounted for 14 per cent of purchases at the last Sotheby's Impressionist sale in June, are expected to bid against each other on Monday for Russian painter Chaim Soutine's 1921 painting L'Homme Au Foulard Rouge (estimate: up to £5million).
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