Arbus pictures are up for sale

Fifty-one images by Diane Arbus will go on the block Thursday at Christie’s New York in the first round of a three-part sale of about 500 photographs amassed by Los Angeles collectors Bruce and Nancy Berman. Works by William Eggleston will be auctioned in October; the final group, including images by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, will be offered next year.

The Bermans, who exhibited some of their photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2006, are selling the works from their 2,500-piece holding as part of a divorce settlement.

They plan to make large donations from the remainder of their collection to the Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The content of those gifts has yet to be announced.

-- Suzanne Muchnic