Modern art found in Paris bank vault to go on sale

[June 11, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- Sotheby's auctioneers is offering a long-lost trove of Impressionist and Modern art.

The 140 works are going on display Friday and will be auctioned later in the month.

They belonged to Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard and had not been seen since they were deposited in a Paris bank vault in 1939.

The collection was found in 1979. It had been neglected for decades because Erich Slomovic, an acquaintance of Vollard who deposited the art in the bank, was killed by the Nazis in 1942.

The key work is a 1905 painting by French artist Andre Derain valued at up to euro15 million ($18 million). Other highlights include works by Cezanne, Degas and Renoir.

Derain's painting will be sold in London on June 22, and the rest of the collection in Paris on June 29.

[Associated Press]

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