Sotheby’s to Bring $600 Million Macklowe Collection to Auction

Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, Switzerland Follow +

Sotheby’s yesterday announced that it will sell works from the Macklowe Collection, which the auction house is pitching as ‘the most significant collection of modern and contemporary art ever to appear on the market’.

The collection was put together over half a century by real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda, who filed for divorce five years ago.

Of the 165 works in the collection, 65 will be sold by Sotheby’s across two New York auctions, the first on 15 November and the second in May next year.

Sotheby’s estimates the value of the works going to auction at over US $600 million.

In promoting the sale, Sotheby’s led with Alberto Giacometti‘s Le Nez (1964), a bronze sculpture with a Pinocchio nose that they estimate will sell for between $60–80 million.

‘Giacometti’s Le Nez dominates a room like few other sculptures I have ever seen,’ said Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Chairman, Europe, and Worldwide Head of Impressionist & Modern Art.

‘With its extraordinary combination of references and influences, from Surrealism to African sculpture to Jean-Paul Sartre, it encapsulates the aesthetic and intellectual essence of Giacometti’s art,’ she said.

Other highlights of the November auction include Mark Rothko‘s No. 7 (1951), Cy Twombly‘s peony painting Untitled (2007) for an estimated $40–60 million, and Sigmar Polke‘s Rasterbild mit Palmen (1966) for an estimated $8–12 million.

In addition to winning major consignments of modern and contemporary art, Sotheby’s continues to lean into the booming NFT market.

They sold 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for a combined value of $24.4 million in an online auction that closed yesterday.

The successful bidder also received three M1 and three M2 mutant serums, which will allow them to generate a new ‘mutant ape’ from the apes in their collection. —[O]

Main image: Cy Twombly, Untitled (2007). Courtesy Sotheby's.