Degas collection up for auction at Sotheby's

Several works by French impressionist painter Edgar Degas will go under the hammer at Sotheby's on November 3, the auction house said Friday.

The chief attraction is the 1879 masterpiece "Danseuse" (dancer), valued at 40 million dollars, which Degas sold in 1885 to a friend, whose family kept it for more than a century until it was sold in London 1995.

It is part of a famous series of Degas dancers and dancing studios he painted in 1870. It shows a Paris Opera ballerina resting behind theater curtains.

"This sublime pastel captures the essence of Degas' work and is a quintessential Impressionist masterpiece," said Sotheby's vice president for modern and impressionist art Emmanuel Di-Donna.

Other Degas works coming under the hammer include "Le Ballet" (1885)," "Femme se coiffant," and two sculptures, "Le Tub" et "Etude nu pour la danseuse habillée."

The November 3 auction will also include Pablo Picasso's "Arlequin," valued at more than 30 million dollars and Russian painter Kazimir Malevitch's "Suprematism" (1916), valued at more than 60 million dollars.