Sotheby’s Expects Sydell Miller Collection to Bring in $200m

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American beauty mogul Sydell Miller’s collection of modern and contemporary art, design, and more will lead Sotheby’s marquee sales in New York this November.

Dedicated day and evening sales will feature close to 90 works, with further online auctions on offer throughout autumn. Altogether, the late entrepreneur’s collection is expected to bring in U.S. $200 million.

‘What stands out is the thread that runs through every painting, sculpture and object—that of Miller’s eye for beauty as she innately understood it,’ said Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart.

Monet‘s Nymphéas (1914–1917), among the artist’s later waterlily paintings, will make its auction debut. An estimate is available upon request. From the same series, Nymphéas en fleur (1914–1917) fetched a record U.S. $84.6 million at Christie’s in New York in 2018.

Picasso‘s La Statuaire (1925), acquired by Miller in 1999 from Museum of Modern Art Founding Trustee Stephen Clark, will be featured alongside Tête de femme, a 1951 bust of French painter Françoise Gilot, estimated between U.S. $7 and $10 million.

Kandinsky‘s Weisses Oval (White Oval) (1921), one of three paintings he made while living in Russia between 1914 and 1921, acquired by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1945, is valued between U.S. $15 and $20 million.

Henry Moore‘s Reclining Mother and Child (1975–1976), a large bronze cast of the pair, first installed outside Miller’s Palm Beach home then brought indoors to her apartment at The Bristol in West Palm Beach, is expected to bring in U.S. $8 to $12 million.

Yves Klein‘s Relief Éponge bleu sans titre (RE 28) (1961), a large, cratered surface built from sponges and stones coated in Klein’s patented blue, is estimated in the same range.

In 1971, Miller co-founded the faux eyelash company Ardell with her former salon-owner husband Arthur, followed by the professional haircare line Matrix in 1980. She retired as the chairman of the board in 1996, dedicating the later part of her life to family and philanthropy.

Part of the auction proceeds will benefit causes she supported, including Cleveland Clinic Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

The sales will be preceded by a series of exhibitions in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Los Angeles throughout October.

Additional items from Miller’s collection will be featured in three dedicated online sales. Her jewellery collection will be included in Sotheby’s Luxury sales this December.

The events follow Sotheby’s upcoming Contemporary Evening and Day sales in London on 9 and 10 October, which will feature work by Andy Warhol, David Hockney, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, among others. —[O]

Main image: Henry Moore, Reclining Mother and Child (1975–1976). Courtesy Sotheby's.