"Lost" treasures the focus of old masters sales

By Mike Collett-White LONDON (Reuters) - Art treasures either presumed lost or previously dismissed as copies are the focus of a series of old masters auctions in London next week. Sotheby's and Christie's once again go head to head, having recently broken a series of records with their main summer sales of impressionist, modern, post-war and contemporary art that fetched over $1 billion (500 million pounds). While the old masters sales tend to be smaller, with a more limited pool of works available, the world's two leading auctioneers are offering art worth a combined total of more than $120 million on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One of the top lots at Sotheby's is "Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen" by Frans Hals, one of the leading painters of the Dutch Golden Age. For about 300 years after it was painted in the... [read full story]