NEW YORK | Thu Jan 3, 2013 5:00pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait by Italian artist Agnolo Bronzino is expected to fetch as much as $18 million this month at auction, the highlight among top-priced paintings and antiquities that include works by Goya, Batoni and Rubens.

"Portrait of a Young Man with a Book," which auction house Christie's has touted as one of the most important Renaissance portraits remaining in private hands, dates to the early 16th century and is among Bronzino's earliest known portraits.

At auction house Sotheby's, the top lot in its series of sales is Pompeo Girolamo Batoni's "Susanna and the Elders," a 1751 work which is estimated to sell for $6 million to $9 million.

One of the very last portraits by Goya, "The Artist's Grandson," which has been in the same collection since 1954 and has been out of the public eye for some 60 years, is expected to fetch $6 million to $8 million, Sotheby's said.

Sotheby's is also featuring 16 paintings being sold by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to benefit its acquisitions fund, as well as property from other major U.S. museums.

Its sales, estimated to total from $90 million to $135 million, will be held from January 29 to February 1, with highlights on view at its New York headquarters starting on January 25.

At Christie's, where several days of sales are expected to take in anywhere from $75 million to about $115 million, top offerings also include a pair of Madonna and child paintings.

A rare, circular-format portrait by Fra Bartolommeo, which dates to the mid-1490s, is still set in its original frame and is being sold from a private collection, is expected to sell for $10 million to as much as $15 million.

Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist," known as "the Rockefeller Madonna" owing to its five decades in the collection of noted collector John D. Rockefeller, is estimated at $5 million to $7 million.

Both works will be sold at Christie's special January 30 Renaissance sale, devoted to European works from 1300 to 1600.

"The 'Rockefeller Madonna' is a rare and important example of Botticelli's mature style that now holds its rightful place in the canon of the great masters' work," Nicholas Hall, co-chairman of Old Masters and 19th-century art, said in a statement.

The sales took in a combined total of about $120 million at both auction houses a year ago.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Paul Simao)

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Pablo Picasso's ''Nature morte aux tulipes'', an oil on canvas painted in March 1932 is seen in this handout photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 5, 2012 4:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1932 portrait by Pablo Picasso of his young lover and a pioneering 3-D Andy Warhol painting of the Statue of Liberty are expected to sell for at least $35 million each, but could fetch much more when they are auctioned next month.

The two works, Picasso's "Nature morte aux tulipes," and Warhol's "Statue of Liberty" will be the highlights of New York autumn sales at Sotheby's and Christie's.

The Picasso masterpiece is one of several renderings of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter and considered by art experts to be one of his most important works. It carries a pre-sale estimate from $35 million to up to $50 million ahead of the November 5 sale at Sotheby's.

"The young woman, with her Grecian profile and athletic, statuesque frame, inspired Picasso's greatest achievements in a variety of media," said Simon Shaw, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York.

"Nature morte aux tulipes is exceptional within the series for its double-meditation on this subject, demonstrating the influence of Surrealism on his output: the artist builds a sculpture of Marie-Thérèse, and then paints that sculpture as a sexually-charged still life, allowing him to dissect her form on many levels," he added in a statement.

Marie-Thérèse, who was just 17 years old when she met the already married Picasso, featured in many of his works and bore him a daughter in 1935.

Another painting of her, "Femme à la fenêtre" from 1936, will also be included in the Sotheby sale with a pre-sale estimate of up to $20 million.

"Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur" a 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse was sold to anonymous buyer at a 2010 auction for $106.5 million.

The sale of the Picasso portraits coincides with a new exhibition of the works of the renowned Spanish artist at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

ICON OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

The following week, on November 14, Warhol's "Statue of Liberty," will go under the hammer at Christie's. It is the first of its kind in 3-D and the only example of the artist's experimentation with the technique still privately owned.

A child of immigrants, Warhol painted the red and green work showing multiple misaligned images of the iconic landmark in 1962 as a prelude to his Death and Disaster series, according to Christie's.

"Andy Warhol's 'Statue of Liberty' is one of the most important statements on America and on painting in the 1960s," said Brett Gorvy, the chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art.

"It is a famous icon of the American dream, alongside Warhol's most popular American subjects such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the Campbell's soup-cans and his Marilyns and Elvis."

Two other paintings from the 3-D series are part of museum collections in Switzerland and Pittsburgh.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced last month that it would sell paintings, photos and other works by the pop artist in a series of auctions, private sales and online. Proceeds from the sales will be used to help the foundation expand its support of the visual arts.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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