Three rare oil paintings by Russian-French artist Marc Chagall featuring interiors of synagogues will be auctioned at Sotheby's New York.

According to Sotheby's, the paintings have "come to the market" after 66 years. They were in the possession of a descendant of an art collector, Max Cottin, who acquired them from the 1945 exhibition at the Gallery of Jewish Art in New York.

Chagall is regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20^th century. He created works in many artistic media such as books, stained glasses and tapestries.

"If a painter is Jewish and paints life, how can he help having Jewish elements in his work? But if he is a good painter, there will be more than that. The Jewish element will be there, but his art will tend to approach the universal," RT News quoted Chagall declaring about his Jewish identity.

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He is known to have created only six synagogue paintings in the later part of the 1930s.

The leading lot for the auction is  a 1931 "Interior of the Yemenite HaGoral Synagogue, Jerusalem," which is estimated to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.