© Christie's Images Ltd. 2008

Sir Joshua Reynolds's “Portrait of William Charles Colyear, 3rd Earl Of Portmore (1747-1823)” is estimated to sell for £200,000 to £300,000.

Henri Matisse Francis Bacon Edgar Degas Claude Monet Thomas Gainsborough Sir Joshua Reynolds Paul Signac George Stubbs

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The auction, to be held on June 18 at the house’s St. James location, is estimated to fetch £15 million ($30 million) and includes paintings by, among others, Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, Henri Matisse, and Paul Signac, as well as a vast collection of furniture and early English pottery. Reynolds’s William Charles Colyear, as a boy is a particular highlight. The dark, brooding work, in which the sitter stares straight at the viewer alongside his pet spaniel, has been twice exhibited at the Royal Academy and is estimated to sell for £200,000 to £300,000.

Proceeds from the sale will aid the Monument Trust, a charity established by Sainsbury to make grants to arts organizations and provide services for HIV and AIDS patients.

Sainsbury, who died in September 2006, was fourth generation in the Sainsbury supermarket family, estimated to be among the top four UK grocery chains. He masterminded the company’s flotation on the U.K. stock market in 1973, which was described at the time as “the sale of the century,” and steered his proceeds into various charitable activities, including the creation of the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing (co-funded with his two brothers), which is now home to the gallery’s temporary exhibitions.

The Sainsbury bequest to the Tate and the National Gallery includes works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, and Francis Bacon, and is estimated to be worth approximately £100 million. All 18 works will be exhibited at Tate Britain in July 2008, before the works are divided between the museums.