Mogul’s fine art collection to go up for auction May

NEW YORK - Works of fine art collected by Hollywood film moguls Samuel Goldwyn and his son are going to auction in a series of sales in New York City beginning in May, Sotheby’s announced Thursday.

The 27 works are expected to bring in a total of $25 million. The first auction is scheduled for May 5, when two works - by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse - will be included as part of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale.

“Woman With a Chignon in an Armchair,’’ a portrait of Picasso’s lover Francoise Gilot, is estimated to bring $12 million to $18 million. It depicts her in an embroidered red peasant jacket that Picasso purchased for her in Poland.

Sotheby’s said Gilot was furious that Picasso left for the trip to attend a conference of the Communist Party in Warsaw while she was expected their child.

Picasso held on to the painting until 1956 when it was purchased by the Goldwyn family from a gallery in Paris.

Matisse’s “Anemones and Pomegranates,’’ also from 1948, was purchased by the elder Goldwyn two years after it was painted. It was the first work he acquired for his collection.

It is estimated at $5 million to $7 million. It was one of Matisse’s last works on canvas.

On May 12-13 at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sales, two David Hockney works from the collection will be offered.

“Fruit in a Chinese Bowl’’ is a still life with a pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.

“Malibu House,’’ estimated to bring $600,000 to $800,000, was painted in 1988, the year of his retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Other sales in May, June and October include paintings by Milton Avery and Diego Rivera. They will be offered in New York, with the exception of one that will be held in London on June 9-10.

Highlights of the collection will be exhibited at Sotheby’s Los Angeles galleries March 25-26.

Samuel Goldwyn Jr., who died in January, was a champion of the independent film movement.

His father, Samuel Sr., died in 1974, was one of the founders of Paramount Studios and his production company became part of Hollywood’s largest studios, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).

The Hollywood dynasty extends to the third generation: Goldwyn’s son John was vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, and another son, actor Tony Goldwyn, stars in the ABC drama “Scandal.’’

AP