Works by American masters such as Bierstadt, Burchfield, Hartley, Hassam and Wyeth, culled from one of the most important corporate collections of American paintings, will be offered this spring at Christie's in New York.

A selection of 29 paintings from the private collection of The Westervelt Company, formerly Gulf States Paper Corporation, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is expected to bring in excess of $10 million. The collection stars in Christie's May 18 sale of Important American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture.

Amassed over four decades by Jonathan (Jack) Westervelt Warner, the former chief executive of Gulf States Paper Corporation, leading American artists of 19th and 20th centuries offered in the sale include Albert  Bierstadt, William Trost Richards, Childe Hassam, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Marsden Hartley, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Ephraim Burchfield, and Andrew Wyeth, among others.                                                                                             

 "The Westervelt Company collection is one of the most celebrated in the field of American art," Eric Widing, Christie's Senior Vice President, American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, said in a statement. "The selected works represent a cross-section of American art at its finest, from the landscapes of the Hudson River School to the vibrant experiments of the Early Modernists and the Stieglitz Circle.  For years, collectors, dealers and curators have anticipated art from this storied collection becoming available, and the sale is expected to be one of the high points of the year.”