Sought-after paintings to be offered in NY auctions

NEW YORK - New York’s fall art auctions are about to sizzle.

Coveted paintings by Andy Warhol and Edouard Manet - never before offered at auction - and works from single-owner collections with boldface names like Mellon and Bacall are expected to fire up bidding at the sales of impressionist, contemporary and modern art beginning tomorrow.

The exceptional quality of the works could mean a record-setting autumn, said Pat Berman, professor of art at Wellesley College.

“The heights reached by Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ or Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies of Lucien Freud’ - once beyond comprehension - are certainly attainable, and potentially eclipsed by these rare art trophies,’’ she said.

“The Scream’’ sold for nearly $120 million in 2012, only to be surpassed a year later by the Bacon which set a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it fetched $142.4 million.

The auctions get off to a flying start with Vincent van Gogh’s “Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies’’ at Sotheby’s. One of the few works sold during his lifetime and painted in 1890 just weeks before the Dutch post-impressionist artist’s death, the painting is estimated to bring $30 million to $50 million.

The following day, a celebrated Manet portrait of a Parisian actress is among the highlights at Christie’s. ``Spring’’ could fetch up to $35 million. First presented at the 1882 Paris Salon, it’s been in the same American collection for over a century and on loan at the National Gallery of Art for the last two decades. Manet painted actress Jeanne Demarsy in a floral dress in 1881 as an allegory of spring.

Christie’s rounds out the sales on Nov. 12 with two Andy Warhol works never before seen at auction and among the pop artist’s most famous portraits of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. Each nearly 7 feet (2.1 meters) high, “Triple Elvis (Ferus Type)’’ and “Four Marlons’’ were acquired by German casino company WestSpiel in the 1970s. Potential bidders can expect to pay around $60 million for each. AP