As one of the highlights of this year’s May Marquee Week, Christie's New York is presenting works from the renowned collection of Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., with combined estimates reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The renowned publisher spent years building this remarkable collection of modern and contemporary art. The quality of the works on offer, created by some of the most influential artists of their time, is unmatched. Without exaggeration, the collection ranks among the most important private art collections of the 20th and 21st centuries. Following his death in 2017, Newhouse’s heirs decided not to sell the collection in a single auction. Instead, works have been brought to auction regularly, either individually or in small groups.
A total of 11 works were auctioned at Christie’s New York during the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in May 2019. The sales generated around $216 million, including an extraordinary $91 million for Jeff Koons’ Rabbit (1986), which set a new auction record for a living artist. Four years later, in May 2023, 16 works in the single-owner auction Masterpieces from the S. I. Newhouse Collection achieved a combined total of around $178 million.
See also: The 10 Most Expensive Artworks of 2019
On 18 May, Christie’s will once again present 16 works from the Newhouse Collection in an evening sale. The carefully curated Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse is one of the highlights of this year’s Spring Marquee Week. Art consultant and former auctioneer Tobias Meyer, who has advised the Newhouse family since 2017, summed up what makes the collection so exceptional: "S.I. always looked for the highest quality, regardless of what he was looking at: works of art that expressed what the artist, whether Picasso, Brancusi, Pollock or Johns, wanted to say at the peak of his creative output, and extraordinary provenance and rarity. He was also fearless in editing his collection. He owned the most important paintings by the most important artists, selling at times, buying things back at others, over many years of study and rigor putting together a collection without parallel."
The sale is led by two major masterpieces, each believed to carry an estimate in the region of $100 million, although Christie’s has not publicly disclosed figures. Particular attention has focused on Number 17A, 1948 by Jackson Pollock, created during a pivotal moment in the artist’s career and the largest of his monumental drip paintings remaining in private hands. Max Carter, Global Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art at Christie’s, said: "Pollock's Number 7A, 1948 is by far and by any measure the most important painting by the artist to appear at auction in decades."
See also: Jackson Pollock: Drawing the Unconscious
Danaïde by Constantin Brâncuși, created around 1913 and estimated at approximately $100 million, is equally significant. A groundbreaking work of abstract sculpture, Carter described it as "one of modernism's few truly perfect objects." Six bronze casts were produced, most of which are now held in major museum collections. Only three were gilded, and this example is the only one still in private ownership. When Si Newhouse purchased Danaïde in 2002 for $18 million, it set a new auction record for a sculpture.
See also: The 10 Most Expensive Sculptures Sold at Auction
If the works meet expectations, both Number 17A, 1948 and Danaïde could set new auction records for their respective artists. The current auction record for Pollock stands at around $61.2 million, achieved at Sotheby’s in 2021 for Number 17, 1951, while Brâncuși’s La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) sold for around $71 million at Christie’s in 2018.
See also: The 10 Most Expensive Artworks Auctioned in 2021
Other highlights include Tête de femme (Fernande) by Pablo Picasso, a 1909 bronze sculpture that marked the beginning of Cubist sculpture, estimated at $40 to $60 million, and Homme à la guitare, considered his most significant painting from 1913, once part of Gertrude Stein’s collection, estimated at $35 to $55 million.
See also: Gertrude Stein: 5 Facts to Know
Also carrying estimates in the tens of millions are Do It Yourself (Violin) by Andy Warhol from 1962, estimated at $20 to $30 million, along with Gray Target and Figure 2 by Jasper Johns, estimated at $20 to $30 million and $10 to $15 million respectively. La femme enceinte, 1er état by Picasso carries an estimate of $18 to $20 million. Works such as Robe noire et robe violette by Henri Matisse, Portrait de Madame K. by Joan Miró and Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow by Piet Mondrian further strengthen an already exceptional catalogue.
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The total estimate for Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse stands at approximately $462 to $595 million. Combined with previous individual sales and earlier auctions, the collection could surpass the $1 billion mark. To date, only one other private collection has achieved this: that of Paul G. Allen, which was auctioned at Christie’s in 2022.
