20th-century masterpieces on tap at upcoming auctions

Christie's has a lineup of 20th-century masterpieces by Lucian Freud, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein that will come to auction this fall Works by some of the most coveted artists of impressionist and modern art are coming to auction this fall, including two major works by Paul Gauguin.

Christie's has a lineup of 20th-century masterpieces by Lucian Freud, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein.

The Gauguin pieces, a sculpture and a painting, hail from the artist's days in Tahiti.

"Young Man with a Flower" depicts a Tahitian youth in a white shirt and loose cravat and a white blossom tucked behind his ear. Gauguin created it in 1891 soon after arriving on the French Polynesian island.

Christie's estimates it could bring $12 to $18 million.

Gauguin identified his subject as a young man who helped him find native wood for carving sculptures.

The portrait's first owner was Henri Matisse, who paid 200 francs for it in 1900. Later owners included John Quinn and Lillie Bliss, one of the original founders of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The current auction record for a painting by the artist is another work from his Tahitian period, "Man with an Ax," which sold for $40.3 million in 2006 at Christie's.

Gauguin's "Therese," a carved wooden figure of a Tahitian female, is poised to set a new auction record for a sculpture by the artist. The estimate is $18 million to $25 million; the current record is $11.3 million.

Works by Gauguin are red hot. In February, one of his Tahitian paintings, "When Will You Marry?" sold privately for nearly $300 million.

The sculpture and portrait are part of a 34-work curated sale on Nov. 9 dubbed "The...