BOSTON, MA.- Skinner, Inc., one of the world's leading auction houses for antiques and fine art, will kick-off its 2010 season with a strong sale of American & European Paintings & Prints on January 29th at noon in the Boston gallery. Many of the offerings come to Skinner from private collections, some unseen for decades.

One of the sale's highlights is a Georgia O'Keeffe Alligator Pear in White Dish, 1921. Included in her Catalogue Raisonne, Volume II, and evidenced by a photograph her husband Alfred Stieglitz took, the painting had been considered lost since the mid-1950s when it was last known to have been purchased by a Cape Cod collector. The work is representative of O'Keeffe's early work, describing "nature in her simplest appearance" and is indicative of O'Keeffe's artistic relationship with modernist painter Arthur Dove. Alligator Pear in White Dish is estimated at $100,000-$150,000.

Another anticipated gem of the January 29th sale and veiled from public view since the sixties is an Arnaldo Pomodoro sculpture, Rotante primo sezionale n. 1 (Rotating First Section No. 1). Coming to Skinner from the collection of Melvin B. Nessel of Boston, MA, founder of the Fenton Show Corporation of Cambridge, the present work is one of two artist proofs outside the edition of two. This three-dimensional sphere was somewhat of a transitional piece for Pomodoro; the disintegration of form is more geometrical than in the other works. The Pomodoro is conservatively estimated at $100,000-$150,000.

One more featured treasure is a long-hidden away Yves Tanguy, Sans Titre. From the estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (nee Braman) Grasso, the piece is illustrative of Tanguy's early American work, similar to the art he produced in Europe, but with a more saturated palette. Sans Titre is estimated at $40,000-$60,000.

According to Robin Starr, Director of American & European Paintings & Prints at Skinner, "We have worked hard to heighten the quality of the works we're offering. Many of the lots included here are true masterpieces and are fresh to the market as well."

A few additional offerings of note include Alexander Calder's Germination, estimated at $40,000-$60,000, whose scale makes it an incredible piece; Jesus Rafael Soto's Struttura also from the Nessel collection and estimated at $30,000-$40,000; and Arab Horsemen by Adolf Schreyer, under glass and in impeccable condition, estimated at $20,000-$30,000.