Drawings by Old Masters up for sale - 05/01/2010

A collection of drawings by Old Masters is to go on sales at the Sotheby's auction house this month.

An exhibition of the works is to go on display from January 23rd, before the sale itself, which will take place on January 27th.

Included is famed Venetian artist Canaletto's An Architectural Capriccio with a Pavilion and a Ruined Arcade on the Water's Edge, which is expected to fetch between $250,000 and $350,000 (£155,000 to £220,000).

Another of the Old Master's works from the Collection of Gordon Getty, Study of a Merchant Vessel, will also go under the hammer and is could collect somewhere in the region of $200,000 to $300,000 (£125,000 to £185,000).

Some 20 of the drawings up for sale depict the exquisite gold objects crafted by Jacopo Strada in the 16th-century.

According to Sotheby's, "a group of this size and importance has never before appeared at auction", and individual lots are expected to collect as much as $35,000 (£22,000) when they go under the hammer.

Canaletto, whose real name was Giovanni Antonio Canal, is primarily known for his 18th-century landscapes of Venice.

He also spent time working in England, with London's Northumberland House and Westminster Bridge among the subjects of his paintings.