Sotheby’s Unveils 3 Modern Works for May

Sotheby’s makes some Modern noise this morning with the announcement of three works from one American collector for May:

Bright, classic and fresh-to-market works by modern masters Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger from aPrivate American Collection will lead Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on 7 May 2014. Each of the three paintings is an important example from a key phase in each artist’s career: La Séance du matin is one of Matisse’s celebrated paintings done in Nice, France in 1920s, whose pendant hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (right, est. $20/30 million)

Deux figures et une fleur is a prime example of Léger’s monumental imagery of the post-war period (est. $3/5 million).

Le Sauvetage comes from Picasso’s coveted series depicting his young muse Marie-Thérèse Walter in the early 1930s (est. $14/18 million); The works by Matisse and Léger never before have appeared at auction, while Le Sauvetage was last seen at auction at Sotheby’s New York a decade ago.