Lehman Brothers art collection to be sold at auction

London - The art which once adorned the European headquarters of Lehman Brothers is to be sold at auction, two years after the company's dramatic collapse.

Auction house Christie's has announced that art treasures owned by Lehman Brothers will be put up for auction almost exactly two years after the Wall Street giant so dramatically collapsed. The auction has been titled Lehman Brothers: Artwork and Ephemera.

Under the direction of the joint administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the auction is scheduled to start at noon on Wednesday 29 September in London, with 300 lots ready to go under the hammer. The collection includes paintings, sketches and precious porcelain that once adorned Lehman Brothers' European headquarters at London's Canary Wharf. The sign that once hung outside the building is also being auctioned, with an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000. The auction will include both modern art and old masters. These include Head of Bruce Bernard, a signed etching by Lucian Freud (estimate: £8,000 to £12,000) and The White Hyacinth by Mary Fedden (estimate: £7,000 to £10,000), as well as works by Wim Wenders and Sean Scully. Old masters include The ship Frankfield off Table Bay by Samuel Walters (estimate: £15,000 to £25,000); The Mare Dolly with jockey; a race beyond by the celebrated sporting artist Francis Sartorius (estimate: £7,000 to £10,000); and A frigate in 3 positions off the Dover Coast by Thomas Luny (estimate: £10,000 to £15,000). A similar auction is taking place the previous week in New York, organised by Sotheby's. Items included in that auction include work by Damien Hirst. The Guardian reports PWC expects to raise around £2m from the auction, although this will make only a small dent in the estimated $22bn being sought by Lehman's European creditors. A PWC spokeswoman told the Guardian that this will probably be the only auction of its type held by the administrators, although it also expects to raise funds by selling off other assets such as property. The task of unwinding Lehman Brothers is likely to take most of the decade, according to the Guardian. Millions of transactions were frozen when the bank suddenly collapsed after failing to agree a rescue deal, leaving PWC with the challenge of working out who Lehman owes money to, and who it should be pursuing for funds.