(Lot 24, "Reclining Nude" by Mark Gertler)

Even with the anemic value of the US dollar, some of the most reasonable auction prices are of dead British artists despite the fact that their work sells in robust pounds. Consider that Sotheby's sale of 20th Century British Art in London on March 18 is full of choice prospects in the four-figures. Bargains, however, are only good if the pictures are good, and the sale contains excellent drawings and paintings by class English acts like Walter Sickert and Henry Lamb.

Bloomsbury painters are represented with a Vanessa Bell interior of Charleston, her country home, and a series of Roger Fry landscapes and portraits. For those who prefer sharper-edged modernism, there's always Sir Peter Blake -- still very much alive -- whose 1991 collage for the I.C.A.F poster contrasts such bearded heavyweights as Cezanne and Van Gogh with the equally imposing face of Jayne Mansfield. --David Coggins

(Lot 155, "Painter and Critics" by Alan Lowndes)

(Lot 31, "The Garden Room" by Vanessa Bell)

(Lot 189, "Original Collage for the 1991 I.C.A.F. Poster" by Sir Peter Blake, R.A.)

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MV STAT: The last surviving 13th century copy of the Magna Carta sold in a 2007 Sotheby's auction for $21,321,000. In 1984, the documents previous purchaser, Ross Perot, acquired it for $1.5 million...