Dutch architect Paul de Ruiter designed Villa Röling, a waterfront home in the town of Kudelstaart, Netherlands.

“The clients of villa Röling are passionate art collectors. They love to be surrounded by works of art.

Therefore their main wish regarding their new dwelling was that it would do greatest justice to their collection of paintings and sculptures”

The single-owner sale of property from the designer’s Lake Como (Italy) residence including furniture, paintings and works of art takes place March 18 at Sotheby’s London.

The 550 lots are expected to fetch in excess of £2 million. Prior to the sale Sotheby’s will recreate highlights of certain rooms of the villa in its New Bond Street galleries.

Gianni Versace’s discerning approach to furnishing his home resulted in the impressive collection of continental furniture, sculpture and silver works and 18th and 19th century paintings to be offered in this sale.

A painting by Claude Monet, which is said to have started the new trend of ‘Impressionism’ with its colour-filled canvas, built with darting brushstrokes, is to go under the hammer next month.

The painting, Dans La Prairie, painted in 1876 and first shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1877, features the artist’s wife Camille almost submerged in a flower-strewn field in Argenteuil, to the north of Paris.

Monet’s skill in capturing the scene even bedazzled his contemporary, Paul Cezanne.

One of the most important works by Pablo Picasso to appear on the market over the last several years will be offered by Sotheby’s in New York on the evening of November 3, 2008.

Arlequin dates to 1909, a pivotal moment in the history of modern art; just two years after Picasso completed his watershed composition, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Modeled with luminous shades of jade, rose and amber, this spectacular portrait depicts a harlequin, one of the most poignant motifs in the artist’s oeuvre.

For the last 50 years, this jewel of Picasso’s Cubist production has been a treasured possession of the Surrealist artist Enrico Donati, who died earlier this year at the age of 99. He purchased it in the 1940s directly from Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, the legendary dealer of Picasso and the Cubists.

The painting, which is expected to bring over $30 million, has been consigned by Mr. Donati’s estate. It will be seen by the public for the first time in more than 45 years when it goes on view at Sotheby’s London beginning October 3, 2008. It will then go on display at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art from 16-19 October and Sotheby’s New York from 29 October to 3 November.

Emmanuel Di-Donna, of Sotheby’s, said it was one the “greatest” Cubists to be sold on the open market. He added: “International collectors have not been presented with such a fantastic opportunity to compete for one of the great Picasso portraits since Sotheby’s sale of Dora Maar au chat.

Lucian Freud is universally acclaimed as Britain’s most famous and expensive living artist.

A Freud painting when it goes on the market is now guaranteed a seven figure reserve price and in May, the portrait “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for $33 million, setting a new world record for a living artist !

However, the 85-year-old artist was recently informed that one of his subjects, Bernard Breslauer, a famous New York antiques book dealer – who once bought a Gutenberg Bible – had wrecked his portrait.

DNA 11 is a company that will transform a swab of your DNA into a contemporary-looking canvas with an artistic image of your DNA on it.

“Web consultant Adrian Salamunovic came across a DNA imaging brochure that his friend, molecular geneticist Nazim Ahmed, had brought with him. Adrian felt the DNA images were a piece of art, and asked Nazim to image his own genetic code.

Several weeks later, Adrian’s DNA art was ready and he promptly hung it on his wall; surprisingly, all of his friends wanted one too. Seeing a good business opportunity, the two friends partnered together with only $2,000 and started DNA 11 in Nazim’s small 600 square foot apartment.