LONDON.- Sotheby’s will offer important old master paintings, modern British art and other works from the collection of 20th-century press baron and business tycoon Lord Beaverbrook in a series of auctions in both London and New York through January 2011. The highlight of the collection is Claude-Joseph Vernet’s A Grand View of the Sea Shore Enriched with Buildings, Shipping and Figures, a monumental canvas depicting a peaceful seascape at sunset (est. $1.5/2 million*). The work will be offered in the New York auction of Important Old Master Paintings on 27 January 2011. Proceeds from the sales will go to benefit the Beaverbrook Foundation, a charitable organization. The Canadian-born press baron, business tycoon and politician Lord Beaverbrook moved from New Brunswick to London in 1910, where he quickly set to work building a newspaper empire. Already the owner of the