Vanderbilt Family to Sell Turner Watercolor for $5.2 Million , Yazzy's at www.walliamverdult.com

This is an undated handout photo of the painting ''Bamborough Castle'' by J.M.W. Turner, released to the media on Nov. 2, 2007. Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg News

According to Bloomberg, the Vanderbilt family, which built a shipping and railroad fortune, will sell a watercolor by Britain's J.M.W. Turner at a top estimate of 2.5 million pounds ($5.2 million) in a December auction in London by Sotheby's.

``Bamborough Castle,'' painted in the mid-1830s, goes on view from today until Nov. 7. at Sotheby's in New York, where collectors are assembling for $2 billion of impressionist-to- contemporary art auctions. The Vanderbilts have owned the watercolor since about 1890, passing it from generation to generation, Sotheby's said in an e-mailed statement.

A Venetian painting by Turner, who died in 1851, sold for $35.8 million in New York last year, and ``The Blue Rigi,'' a watercolor, took 5.8 million pounds in London.

The artists' works aren't immune to market setbacks. In July, Turner watercolors from the Belgian collector Guy Ullens missed their low estimate as two images, valued at as much as 3 million pounds each, failed to sell at a Sotheby's auction in London.

Turner exhibited his first watercolor at age 15. Well-known works are battle and sea paintings and English, Swiss and Venetian landscapes. Collectors today often prefer late, semi-abstract Turners that seem more in tune with contemporary art, dealers said.

The picture of the walled Bamborough Castle, at the edge of the North Sea in Northumberland, will be offered at a Dec. 5 auction in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in London at