Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- John Madejski, who last week won a knighthood in the U.K., is selling a bronze version of Edgar Degas’s best-known sculpture at Sotheby’s February auction of Impressionist and modern art in London.

“Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” owned by Madejski --one of the U.K.’s wealthiest businessmen -- is expected to fetch up to 12 million pounds ($17.6 million) on Feb. 3, the auction house said in an e-mailed statement today. Its minimum estimate is 9 million pounds.

The 3-foot-high “Little Dancer” is one of an edition of 28 bronze casts made in 1922 after the artist’s death in 1917. The original wax and fabric statue, now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. was first shown by Degas in Paris at the sixth Impressionist exhibition of 1881.

“This was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his own lifetime, and so it has a unique place in the artist’s work,” said Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art specialist Helena Newman in a phone interview. “It was regarded as incredibly modern and lifelike at the time.”

Madejski, chairman of Reading Football Club, was described by the British cabinet office as “a major philanthropist” when he was awarded the knighthood, allowing him to put the title “sir” in front of his name, on Dec. 31.

Madejski Fortune

The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List ranks Madejski, the former publisher of AutoTrader magazine, as the 214th wealthiest man in the U.K. His fortune, based on publishing and property interests, was then estimated at 400 million pounds.

He bought this particular version of the statue -- one of 10 left in private hands -- for 5 million pounds at Sotheby’s in London in February 2004, the auction house said. This was the last time a “Petite danseuse” appeared at auction, said Sotheby’s. Since then it has been on display at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, where Madejski sponsored a suite of galleries bearing his name.

The highest auction price achieved for a Degas sculpture is the $12.4 million paid for another bronze version of the “Petite danseuse” at Sotheby’s in New York in November 1999.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

Last Updated: January 6, 2009 05:50 EST