'Lost' Kandinsky reaches auction

Kandinsky's work was part of a double-sided painting

A painting by Pablo Picasso and a lost work by Russian expressionist Wassily Kandinsky are among the highlights of a modern art sale in New York.

Kandinsky's Two Riders and Reclining Figure, which was largely unknown to scholars, could fetch up to $25m (£13.4m), predicts Sotheby's.

Picasso's Women of Algiers, part of a series of 15 paintings, could reach bids of $20m (£10.7m).

The two paintings will go under the hammer on 3 and 4 May.

Kandinsky's work was one of two pieces painted on the back and front of a piece of millboard.

Unseen for a century

He gave the painting to fellow expressionist painter Alexej von Jawlensky, probably sometime before 1914.

The board was later separated and the other half belongs to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The auction piece has remained out of the public eye for nearly 100 years.

Picasso's Women of Algiers formed part of a series dedicated to North African women in a harem.

The Impressionist and modern art sale will also include lots by Claude Monet, Max Beckmann and Edvard Munch.