Sotheby’s has announced the sale of the Theodore J. Forstmann collection in New York this May with works split between the Impressionist and Modern sales and the Contemporary sales. Forstmann liked beauty in its many forms. The collection, which is estimated to bring in $75m, only confirms this:

A significant group of works will highlight Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 2 May 2012 and includes Pablo Picasso’s portrait of Dora Maar titled Femme assise dans un fauteuil, which exemplifies the artist’s wartime work and his passionate exchange with Dora Maar (est. $20/30 million). Chaïm Soutine’s Le chausseur de chez Maxim’s is a masterwork of Expressionism and arguably the crowning achievement of the artist’s career (est. $10/15 million), and Soutine’s Le Chasseur (est. $4/6 million), both done in Paris in the 1920s will be major highlights, as will be Tête humaine, a prime example of Joan Miró’s formative output of the 1930s (est. $10/15 million). Outstanding works by Lichtenstein, Basquiat and Gorky will be included in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 9 May 2012.