NEW YORK (REUTERS).- One of the most valuable
private art collections ever offered at auction, led by an $80 million
Picasso,
will be sold in May in a sign that the art market might soon flirt with
the
record levels seen before the financial crisis struck in 2008. The sale
of more
than 50 works at Christie’s from the estate of Mrs. Sidney Brody, a Los
Angeles
philanthropist who died in November, is conservatively estimated to sell
for
more than $150 million. It is one of two prestigious
collections being
handled by Christie’s. The other collection includes 100 works owned by
late
best-selling writer and director, Michael Crichton.