This year marks 150 years since Klimt was born near Vienna. He is best for his painting "The Kiss," but his sketches are also highly sought after.

These three sketches were purchased by a South African art collector in 1982. The top lot of a female nude holding a baby is expected to sell for between $48,000 and $81,000 when it goes under the hammer on Tuesday.

But Bonham's specialist of impressionist and modern art sales says the figure could be much higher.

"There has been a lot of interest," Ruth Graham, with Bonham's London, said. "I mean traditionally his sketches can go for anything from around 8,000 right up to 500,000 just for the top results, for a very similar work actually, for a reclining nude so we have just to see how it does tomorrow."

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