Sotheby’s has secured two invaluable non-public collections for the public sale home’s autumn New York gross sales, providing vital wins because the public sale home’s losses mount amid a weakened market.
The 37 works that belonged to the late Chicago-based collectors Jay and Cindy Pritzker, are anticipated by specialists to collectively herald round $120m. And 55 works from the gathering of the cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder, who died in June, are collectively estimated to promote for round $400m.
Only one work from Lauder’s trove accounts for greater than a 3rd of the consignment’s whole: Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16) has been given an estimate in extra of $150m. Two of the artist’s landscapes, Blooming Meadow (1906) and Forest Slope in Unterach (1917) are anticipated to promote for between $80m and $100m, and $70m and $90m, respectively. The gathering additionally contains works by Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and Agnes Martin, in line with the Occasions.
Jay Pritzker was a co-founder of the Hyatt lodge chain and a member of the outstanding Pritzker household in Chicago (Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is Jay Pritzker’s nephew). He was married for greater than a half-century to Cindy. Collectively, they co-founded the celebrated Pritzker Structure Prize—the self-discipline’s most coveted award—in 1979 and constructed a formidable artwork assortment. Jay died in 1999 and Cindy died final March, aged 101.
Works from the Pritzkers’ assortment headed to Sotheby’s are led by Vincent van Gogh’s Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes) (1887), a still-life of a stack of books with a $40m estimate. After passing by three generations of the Van Gogh household after the artist’s loss of life, Romans Parisiens’ most up-to-date public sale look was 1988. Based on Sotheby’s, Nineteenth-century viewers would have instantly recognised the yellow paperback covers within the portray as belonging to Charpentier books, from the Parisian publishing home that innovated cheap, mass-market publishing.
Different works coming to market from the Pritzker assortment embrace items by blue-chip artists Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Max Beckmann and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Extra tons will seem in different auctions at Sotheby’s, like work by Le Corbusier, Georges Braque, Fernando Botero and Alexander Calder in a day public sale of recent artwork.
Vincent van Gogh’s Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes) (1887) Courtesy Sotheby’s
The 2 collections’ star tons will probably be offered at Sotheby’s marquee night auctions in New York this November, the primary sequence of gross sales to be held on the public sale home’s new headquarters on the Breuer Constructing. Each Lauder and the Pritzkers had ties to the Brutalist landmark. Lauder was a longtime supporter of the Whitney Museum of American Artwork, which commissioned the constructing and occupied it for many years. The continuing renovations to organize the area for Sotheby’s are being led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who acquired the Pritzker Prize in 2001 .
The Lauder assortment is essentially the most invaluable consignment introduced up to now for the autumn gross sales in New York by any of the main public sale homes. The stress is on as a current ArtTactic examine discovered world public sale gross sales fell 6.2% within the first half of 2025. Final week, filings from Sotheby’s mum or dad firm confirmed the public sale home misplaced $248m in 2024, greater than doubling its losses in comparison with the earlier 12 months. It isn’t but clear what types of incentives Sotheby’s provided to Lauder’s and the Pritzkers’ heirs or estates to safe the consignments, although in previous seasons companies have been recognized to waive sure charges or supply ensures to scale back the dangers of tons failing to promote and turning into “burned”.
Rival home Christie’s has landed the Weis household assortment, constructed by the late grocery store boss Robert F. Weis and his spouse, Patricia G. Ross. Robert died in 2015 and Patricia died final 12 months, and their youngsters have consigned 80 works with a collective estimate of greater than $180m. Standout tons embrace work by Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Christie’s is reportedly assured within the assortment, regardless of the downturn in demand of the previous three years—the public sale home secured the sale by providing to pay almost $200m upfront, in line with The New York Occasions.
Christie’s may also supply greater than a dozen works from the gathering of the late billionaire Elaine Wynn, which is anticipated by specialists to herald greater than $75m. Trophy works from Wynn’s assortment embrace Lucian Freud’s The Painter Shocked by a Bare Admirer (2005) and Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #40 (1971), each with $15m to $25m estimates.
