Picasso's striking La Dame - la Collerette leads Swann's New York Print sale

Many collectors and investors would dearly love to own a work by one of the great painters of the last two centuries, but may find that even as a major investment the six, seven and eight figure price tags of some of the great, such as Picasso's recently auctioned $40m La Lecture are just out of their reach.

Fortunately, Swann is offering a truly impressive line-up of 19^th and 20^th century prints and drawings with listings that are achievable, though not trivial. Highlights include:

Baigneuse, Debout, en Pied is a colour lithograph on cream laid paper by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. One of an edition of 100 printed by Auguste Clot and intended for the L'Album d'estampes originales de la Galerie Vollard, this is a superb impression with fresh colours listed at $40,000-60,000.

Pablo Picasso's La Dame à la Collerette

The Renoir was created in 1896. The year before, a colour etching on antique bluish-cream laid paper named Église et Ferme d'Éragny was created by Camille Pissarro.

One of only 4 lifetime impressions printed in colours in this state (there were only 15 lifetime impressions overall printed in colours), it is a brilliant, early impression of this extremely scarce print, with strong colours.

A real highlight of the sale is the range of works by Pablo Picasso with dozens of pieces on offer ranging from $2,500.

The most covetable piece however is La Dame à la Collerette (Portrait de Jacqueline à la fraise), a colour linoleum cut on cream wove which is expected to bring $50,000-75,000.

Swann's auction, A Century of American Prints, takes place in New York on March 3.