Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish-born artist with a booze-and-party-fueled lifestyle, moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a wild fixture on the movie-industry scene.

WSJ: In the Art World, Women on the Verge

For years later, whenever anyone had a de Lempicka to sell, the reaction was always the same: "Everyone said, 'Oh, offer it to Madonna, ' " says David Norman, Sotheby's co-chairman of Impressionist and modern art world-wide.

WSJ: In the Art World, Women on the Verge