ART

‘Helga’ Works Bring $40 Million: An international group of collectors have paid more than $40 million for Andrew Wyeth’s “Helga” collection of paintings and drawings. Also included in the sale was the Olson collection, a second group of Wyeth works. Current owner, collector Leonard E. B. Andrews, said Friday the collection will tour Japan for a year beginning in January before the new owners take possession. Andrews, who put the collection up for sale in February, declined to reveal the purchasers or how much he was paid. But Peter J. Marcelle, owner of Marcelle Fine Art of New York, which handled the sale, said the works sold for between $40 and $45 million. The Helga collection, executed in secret from 1971 to 1985, was unveiled in 1986 with much publicity. The 240 watercolors, paintings and drawings, many of them nudes, depict Helga Testorf, a neighbor of Wyeth’s in Chadds Ford, Pa.