Cy Twombly, Untitled2007. Sotheby's
One of the art market’s most widely anticipated auctions, the collection of divorcing New York developers Harry and Linda Macklowe, will be sold at Sotheby’s this fall. Prime examples of work by Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Alberto Giacometti will be among the 65 works from the Macklowe’s holdings offered across two designated sales at the auction house’s New York headquarters. The first stand-alone sale will take place on November 15; the second will be held in May 2022. The collection is estimated in excess of $600 million.
Andy Warhol’s Nine Marilyns (1962), a black and white silkscreen depicting nine repeated publicity photographs of Marilyn Monroe is eatimated at $40-60 million; Cy Twombly’s billboard-sized canvas Untitled (2007), featuring red flower forms painted on a white background is estimated at $40-60 million; Gerhard Richter’s painting Seestück (1975), a grey-toned blurry seascape, is estimated at $25–35 million. Works by Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Jeff Koons and Sigmar Polke, and other artists, will be included in the two sales.
A Rothko painting and Giacometti sculpture are two of the most expensive works in the collection to be sold this year. Giacometti’s Le Nez (1947), a bronze sculpture of a bust that hangs suspending in an open wire cage and Mark Rothko’s No. 7 (1951), a three-color painting featuring stacked blocks of nude pink, chartreuse and orange each have estimates upon request. They are both valued at around $70 million.
“This collection was assembled with an unparalleled eye for several decades,” said Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart in a press conference announcing the sale, “it will make history as one of the defining moments of the art market.”
Sotheby’s chairman for contemporary art, Gregoire Billault said the collection is out of the ordinary, not only for its quality, but due to the fact that it has been kept intact for so many years. “I’ve never seen this,” said Baillaut, “It is a group of works that have been kept together as a proper treasure.”
According to Sotheby’s, the Macklowe sale comes to the market with the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at auction. It rivals the Rockefeller collection sale at Christie’s in 2018, which made $832 million, against an estimate of $500 million.
News of the sale comes months after art dealer Michael Findlay, who is the court-appointed receiver overseeing the distribution of the Macklowe’s art collection decided to postpone the sale of the collection in March 2018 due to the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic.
Harry and Linda Macklowe. Photo Patrick McMullan/A.
During divorce proceedings in 2018, a New York judge ordered real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his wife, Linda, to sell 65 artworks from their $2 billion fortune—said to be collectively worth around $700 million— and to split the proceeds. Findaly was appointed as receiver for the art collection in October 2020 amid a contentious 14-weeks divorce trial between the couple, who had been married for five decades.
Harry amassed his wealth as the founder of Macklowe Properties Inc. The couple started collecting in the late 1950s have over the course of several decades acquired more than 150 works. Judge Drager ruled in 2018 that Linda Macklowe, an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a vice president and trustee of the Guggenheim Museum, would be able to keep $40 million worth in art.
Sotheby’s beat out its competitor, Christie’s, to sell the behemoth collection. The grouping carries a guarantee. The works will travel to Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris and London before up for sale in New York.
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