Christie’s New York to Auction Rarely Seen $180 Million Weis Collection

By Rachel Kubrick – 1 September 2025, New York

As the first major announcement ahead of the November auction season, the Weis Collection will go under the hammer at Christie’s during their New York marquee week.

Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis had housed most of their impressive collection at their Sunbury home, a small town in rural Pennsylvania where their eponymous supermarket chain was founded in 1912. After the Weises’ deaths in 2015 and 2024, their three children have elected Christie’s to sell the wide-ranging art collection.

Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis, with Tom Wesselmann in his studio. Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025.

Over the span of seven decades, the couple amassed more than 80 works across media and movements, many of which date ‘from the pinnacle of nearly every represented artist’s career’, according to Christie’s. Artists include modernist mainstays like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Max Ernst and Joan Miró, as well as important American artists like Franz Kline, Tom Wesselmann and Julian Schnabel.

The highlight of the collection is Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (1958), valued at approximately $50 million. This and other masterworks will be auctioned in an 18-lot single-owner before the November 20th Century Evening Sale, with most of the remaining works available in day auctions throughout that week.

Mark Rothko, No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (1958). Oil on canvas. 198.8 x 175.9 cm. Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025.

The Weis collection also includes a selection of ceramics by sought-after British potters Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, which will be featured in a dedicated Design sale towards the end of this year.

According to the New York Times, the auction house managed to secure the collection by committing a financial guarantee of nearly $200 million to the Weis family approximately five months prior. Christie’s valuation, however, is in excess of $180 million for the collection’s upcoming sales.

Christie’s will send the Weises’ highlights on tour to Dubai, Hong Kong, London and Paris over the next two months, giving art enthusiasts and prospective buyers the opportunity to view this rarely exhibited collection. —[O]