This fall, Bonhams will present the Sandy Lerner Cat Collection, a two-part sale of one of the most significant private collections of cat-related decorative arts, books, and collectibles ever assembled. The first part of the auction will be hosted live at Bonhams New York on September 30th. The second runs online September 22nd through October 1st.
The auctions draw from the Ayrshire Farm estate of businesswoman, philanthropist, and feline aficionado Sandy Lerner. Bonhams will also present two additional auctions from Lerner’s estate, including furniture, paintings, and decorative arts from her Georgian Revival Virginia residence, held in Massachusetts, later in the fall.
Lerner, who co-founded tech company Cisco Systems and later founded the cosmetics brand Urban Decay, has spent more than three decades building the cat collection. She chronicled her collecting journey in the 2017 book Caticons: 4,000 Years of Art Imitating Cats. The collecting habit began, by her own account, during a period when she was “forced to be catless” because her then-husband was allergic; she has said her only criteria for acquisitions were “(1) is it a cat, and (2) do I like it?”
“These are objects I have personally chosen,” Lerner said in a statement. “They need to be rehomed, now, to others who will care for, cherish, and respect them as icons of the human achievement and—in the case of the caticons—affection that created them.”
The Sandy Lerner Cat Collection Part I will feature 66 lots spanning centuries and media. Highlights include Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s Chat et Chaton (1934) estimated at $30,000–$50,000; Diego Giacometti’s Tête de Chat (circa 1970) estimated at $20,000–$30,000; and Henri Matisse’s Visages et grenades (circa 1952) estimated at $10,000–$15,000.
Other artists represented in the sale include Rembrandt Bugatti, Édouard Manet, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Fernando Botero, and Henriëtte Ronner-Knip. The sale also includes feline-inspired jewelry from Tiffany & Co. and Boucheron, along with Asian works of art such as a Qing dynasty jade cat-form snuff bottle estimated at $30,000–$40,000.
Beyond cats, furniture, decorative arts, and paintings from Lerner’s collection will be featured in Ayrshire Farm: The Sandy Lerner Collection Part I, a live auction in Massachusetts on October 28th. Animal-themed works reflecting Lerner’s broader affection for wildlife appear prominently in that sale as well, including Walter Hunt’s Feeding Time, estimated at $25,000–$35,000. An online companion sale runs October 18th through 29th.
