Wyeth’s Helga takes a last spin

Andrew Wyeth’s beguiling portraits of Helga, among the most erotic in American art, are on view at a New York gallery in what could be their last appearance as a wide collection.

Seventy sketches, drawings, watercolors, dry brushes and a tempera, many in the nude, are being shown by Warren Adelson, who recently sold more than 200 Helga works to private collectors nationwide.

“Andrew Wyeth’s Helga: Works on Paper,” are on view through Dec. 22 at Adelson Galleries in Manhattan before being dispersed to the new owners, making it unlikely such a show could be reprised, the organizers said.

Adelson wouldn’t disclose names of the buyers or the full amount from the sales. He said the drawings brought prices in the “low six figures,” the watercolors in the “six figures” and the finished portraits in dry brush and tempera “in the seven figures.”

The sales were handled privately after the collection came back on the American market last year.