From the Halsey Minor Collection: Richard Prince's "Nurse in Hollywood #4," 2004, Acrylic and inkjet on canvas. Estimate: $5-7 million.

May is an exciting month for the New York auction world.  This year, some very private West Coast collections, featuring rare work, will be offered at auction in the next two weeks.  Property from the $150 million Holmby Hills-based Collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody will be auctioned off at Christie’s on May 4 and 5 during the Impressionist and Modern art sale.  Highlights include Picasso’s 1932 painting, “Nu au Plateau du Sculpteur,” estimated at over $80 million, which insiders say may take over as the most expensive work of art ever sold.  Seminal works by Giacometti, Braque, and Matisse will also be included in the sale.  A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the lovely Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton will be sold in conjunction with Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art sale.  In addition to being a best-selling author, screenwriter, film director and producer, the very private Crichton was also an instrumental collector of 20th century artists and friends with many of the artists whose work he collected.  An outstanding grouping of paintings by Jasper Johns will be offered, as well as works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol.  The collection will be exhibited for the first time in public during Christie’s preview, May 2-11.

Finally, The Halsey Minor Collection of Art and Design will be sold by Phillips de Pury as a single owner evening sale, on May 13 in order to pay off a delinquent loan that used art as collateral. Two of the most important works include Richard Prince’s “Nurse in Hollywood” and Marc Newson’s “Prototype Lockheed Lounge.”  Other artists represented include Mark Grotjahn, John Baldessari, Takashi Murakami, Charlotte Perriand, and Ed Ruscha.