The Mapplethorpe Estate Sale : Art: The photographer’s personal collection and his own works are expected to fetch about $3 million at New York auctions.

The late Robert Mapplethorpe will have his day in the marketplace this week. Three days, in fact. A round of New York auctions today, Tuesday and Thursday features 41 photographs by Mapplethorpe and about 530 objects from his personal collection.

This week’s sales will be the first public test of Mapplethorpe’s market since his homoerotic and sadomasochistic work became a focus of an ongoing controversy over government support of art. The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s cancellation of his retrospective, slated to open in Washington on July 1, resulted in a national furor over National Endowment of the Arts funding of art that may be deemed offensive.

Auction estimates for Mapplethorpe’s photographs--including elegant still lifes, arresting portraits and more provocative images--range from $1,800 to $25,000. In light of the controversy and Mapplethorpe’s death of AIDS in March, some dealers and collectors say the estimates are low and speculate that prices will go much higher. The auction record for a single Mapplethorpe photograph is $16,000 (for a limited-edition color photograph of a calla lily), but Hamiltons Gallery in London recently sold a unique image of a nude male for $50,000.

“Mapplethorpe’s prices have shot up in the last nine months,” said Los Angeles photography dealer G. Ray Hawkins. “Last December, at Los Angeles’ art fair, I had three Mapplethorpes at $5,000 each and I sold one of them. Two months later, I sold the other two for between $5,000 and $7,000 apiece. Now, prints of the same quality are selling to dealers for $9,000 to $11,000.”

Because they are “quick turnover” items, Hawkins said that dealers typically charge buyers an additional 20% or 25% commission, about half the usual commission charged on art sales.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s New York auction houses report an unusually high degree of interest in Mapplethorpe’s work and possessions. Christie’s Thursday night preview of Mapplethorpe’s estate was “mobbed” and people were excited about the works on display, according to Los Angeles photography collector Leonard Vernon, who is in New York for the sales.

The Park Avenue auction house today will offer 16 Mapplethorpe works in a sale of about 600 photographs. On Tuesday, Christie’s will put Mapplethorpe’s estate on the block. His collection of art, glassware, ceramics, classical sculpture and furniture is expected to total about $3 million in sales. Proceeds from the estate sale will go to the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation established to benefit AIDS research and photography collections in major museums.

At Sotheby’s, photography specialist Beth Gates-Warren is looking forward to what she regards as “the best photography sale we’ve ever had,” on Wednesday and Thursday. The auction of about 750 photographs offers 25 Mapplethorpes, all but one of them on Thursday.

Top-priced items, each valued at $20,000 to $25,000, are “Self-Portrait (With a Gun and Star),” from an edition of 10, and a trio of photogravure “Floral Still Lifes” from an edition of 27. A unique silver print of Arnold Schwarzenegger is estimated at $12,000 to $18,000.

Mapplethorpe’s limited-edition images generally sell for about $9,000 or $10,000, while his one-of-a-kind pieces command between $20,000 and $30,000, according to Howard Reed, director of photography for the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, the late artist’s principal dealer.

Reed discounts the notion that Mapplethorpe’s prices have escalated suddenly since his death. “That’s too simplistic. The rise has been steady over the last three or four years,” he said.

Dealers say that Mapplethorpe’s career took off largely because his art-world connections--notably his friendship with the late collector Sam Wagstaff--paved the way to major museum shows and representation by a top New York dealer. But the controversy over the Corcoran’s cancellation of his exhibition and the fact that his death restricts new releases of his work to those he prescribed through his studio hasn’t hurt his prices.

While the controversy has been a source of dismay for many supporters of the arts, it is a marketer’s dream for Mapplethorpe. “He couldn’t have done better if he had planned it,” said one dealer.

Mapplethorpe’s sexually explicit images are generally sold to a relatively small group of collectors, but his pictures of flowers and classical statuary have a broad appeal, dealers say.

In terms of audience, he has at least two things going for him, Los Angeles dealer David Fahey suggested. One is the “crossover” art crowd that tends to see his work as art because it has had the imprimatur of the best showcases. Another is that--like Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber--he was well established in the commercial world. Instead of detracting from his personal art, Mapplethorpe’s commercial exposure has increased his following, Fahey said.

“The genius of his work is that he made portraits and beautiful still lifes as well as work that some people consider pornography,” Gates-Warren said. “The interest in his work is enormous and it comes from a surprisingly broad spectrum.”