Three Sotheby's art auctions expected to raise £150m

Sotheby's is to sell Impressionist, modern and contemporary art work worth an estimated £150 million at three London auctions next month.

Pablo Picasso's first portrait of his teenage mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, is expected to fetch up to £18 million at an Impressionist and modern art sale on February 8.

Walter is said to be the woman who transformed Picasso's life and art.

The next sale features pieces by Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon among 60 works that took an anonymous private collector 30 years to compile.

Other artists represented in Looking Closely: A Private Collection, on February 10, include Amedeo Modigliani, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Lucian Freud.

There are two portraits of Freud, a self portrait and a triptych by his good friend Bacon. Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud has an estimate of between £7 million and £9 million.

The whole collection is expected to fetch about £45 million.

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art, said: "Individually the works are remarkable, and together it stands as an expression of true connoisseurship.

"To experience the paintings and sculptures is a rare privilege, as they narrate a history of enthralling artistic innovation."

He said the collection showed "impeccable taste" and "a resolute commitment to quality".

Sotheby's sold a Giacometti sculpture, L'Homme qui marche I, known as the "stick man", for a record £65 million last year.

Helena Newman, Sotheby's European chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, said: "Following on from that, and from the successes in the field of Impressionist and modern art that continued throughout the year, we are now delighted to present a sale that will appeal to the tastes of today's ever expanding global market."

The final Sotheby's sale, on February 15, will feature work by post-war artists including Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Antony Gormley and Frank Auerbach.

To coincide with Tate Modern's sunflower seed installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, there is the chance to buy 100 kilos of his life-sized porcelain "seeds" for between £80,000 and £120,000.

Interest in contemporary art has been strengthened by demand in China, which helped Sotheby's to sell £540 million of works last year.