Andrew Wyeth works owned by Charlton Heston to be auctioned

Three works by Andrew Wyeth that belonged to Charlton Heston will be offered at a Sotheby’s sale in November, the New York auction house is expected to announce on Thursday.

In addition, the company will auction off a rarely seen Francis Bacon painting that once belonged to Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni and is estimated to be worth as much as $18 million.

Sotheby’s said that the Wyeth pieces will be offered at a Nov. 18 auction of American art in New York. Heston, who was both a fan and a friend of Wyeth, collected the artist’s paintings and was known to display them in his home.

The Wyeth pieces headed to the auction block include “Flood Plain,” a 1986 painting that depicts a landscape from the artist’s hometown of Chadds Ford, Pa., and is estimated to sell for as much as $3 million; “Ice Pool,” a watercolor estimated at as much as $250,000; and “Study for Flood Plain,” a work that the artist gifted to Heston in 1991.

Heston became friends with Wyeth during the ‘80s, and narrated a documentary on the artist’s “Helga” paintings and drawings.

In a catalog essay, Heston’s son, Fraser, writes that Wyeth’s paintings of windswept New England landscapes “spoke to my father of his upbringing in the wilds of Northern Michigan.”

He also recounted how his father would take his family to visit museums, including trips to see works by Michelangelo at the Vatican. (The actor played Michelangelo in the 1965 movie “The Agony and the Ecstasy.”)

Charlton Heston died in 2008 at 84; Wyeth died the following year at 91.

Sotheby’s said that it will offer Bacon’s “Portrait,” a 1962 painting depicting a reclining figure, at a Nov. 11 auction of contemporary art in New York. The piece once belonged to Antonioni, the director of such influential films as “L’Avventura” and “Blow-Up.”

The auction house said the painting is being sold by its current owner, a private collector whose name has not been publicized. The piece, which was last seen in public in 1984, has an estimated selling price between $12 million and $18 million.

Prior to the sales, the Bacon painting and Wyeth’s “Flood Plain” will be on display at Sotheby’s in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday.

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT