Treasures priced at $100 million by 20th-century masters Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi will lead Christie’s New York’s marquee May art sales, coming from the collection of media magnate S. I. Newhouse, Artnet News has revealed.
While Christie’s has yet to confirm Artnet’s report, those two estimates, if met, would far exceed those artists’ current auction highs. Numbering as many as 40 works, the collection encompasses examples by giants like Jasper Johns and Pablo Picasso, and is reportedly valued at $450 million.
The late Newhouse and his wife Victoria appeared regularly on ARTnews Top 200 collector list, which notes that they are said to have spent as much as $700 million on their art holdings. When Newhouse died in 2017, his family entrusted his collection to the care of art advisor Tobias Meyer, previously principal auctioneer at Sotheby’s, reported the New York Times, adding that the collection included such works as Andy Warhol’s 1964 painting of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Orange Marilyn, and Lucian Freud’s 1993 self-portrait Painter Working, Reflection. Still ahead, noted the paper, were decisions about what to sell and when.
Financier Ken Griffin bought Shot Orange Marilyn for about $200 million in a private sale shortly after Newhouse’s death, Artnet points out, accounting for about half the $400 million that Christie’s has already racked up selling his collection. Some $178 million of that came in May 2023, with 16 works, all sold, including examples by Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, and Picasso.
In 2019, Christie’s set a record for Jeff Koons with the publisher’s sculpture Rabbit (1986), which fetched $91.1 million, a new high for any living artist.
The works coming to auction, per Artnet, include Pollock’s drip painting Number 7 (1948), tagged at about $100 million—far in excess of his current record of $61.2 million. Also on offer: Brancusi’s Danaïde (1913), a bronze head with brown patina and gold leaf, estimated at $100 million. The Romanian artist’s current high is $71.2 million.
While the art market is struggling to recover from a multi-year slump, an influx of trophy works—particularly at Sotheby’s—last November provided a much needed boost. Christie’s is surely hoping that the masterworks in Newhouse’s collection will provide more of the same.
