Unseen portrait of novelist and beauty Elizabeth Howard emerges The painting depicts Howard as Fritha in the Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, which Scott illustrated in 1946. In her autobiography, Howard recalls how, on a passage to New York on board the Aquitania with four hundred GI brides, Scott had searched the ship for a suitable model for Fritha, but "with the general prostration and the fact that the brides were unexpectedly a series of "no oil paintings," he had to fall back on me. I stood for hours holding a pillow, which he turned into the wounded snow goose. An array of works by 17 international artists including Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Urs Fischer, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Kader Attia have been selected to harmonise not only with the house and gardens but with the current exhibition of Chardin's paintings of a Boy with a House of Cards, one of which Lord Rothschild bought for 5 million pounds in 2007. The sculptures will be for sale through Christie's private sales department. A series of contemporary art auctions was held in New York last week, coinciding with the rash of art fairs that accompany the annual Armory Show. American photographic artist, Cindy Sherman, who is enjoying a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, was the star of the auctions as one of image of her as a clown topped Phillips de Pury's sale at $446,500, while "Film Still," 1978, an earlier image of Sherman, posing as a tough city girl in 1950"s New York, trebled estimates to sell for $746,500 at Sotheby's. It was a rough ride for Damien Hirst though as a large spot painting, estimated to fetch the top price at Christie's of between $600,000 and $800,000, failed to sell. Another large spot painting, estimated to fetch over $700,000 at Phillips the next evening, was then withdrawn from the sale, signifying lack of confidence.