Warhol, Rothko and Richter Star in Sotheby’s Second Macklowe Collection Sale

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Works by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and Mark Rothko will star in Sotheby’s second auction of works from the Macklowe Collection, which was put together by real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda.

The Andy Warhol camouflage-print painting Self Portrait (1986) (estimate: US $15–20 million) comes from his final body of works, the ‘Fright Wig’ series, which he painted just months before his death in February 1987.

The sale’s other top lots are Gerhard Richter’s Seestück (Seascape) (1975) (estimate: $25–35 million), and Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1960) (estimate: $35–50 million).

Other noteworthy works include Jeff Koons’ New Hoover Convertibles, New Shelton Wet/Dry 10 Gallon Doubledecker (1981–1986) (estimate: $3.5–4.5 million), Alberto Giacometti‘s Diego sur stèle II (1958) (estimate: $7–10 million), and Sigmar Polke‘s Plastik-Wannen (Plastic Tubs) (1964) (estimate: $3.5–4.5 million).

In total, 30 works from the collection with a combined estimate of around $200 million will go under the hammer in New York on 16 May.

The sale is the second of two court-ordered auctions attempting to disentangle the assets of the Macklowes in the wake of their divorce in 2018.

The first 35 works from the collection, sold in New York on 15 November 2021, brought in $676.1 million, a record for Sotheby’s. The auction’s top lots were Rothko’s No. 7 (1951), which sold for $82 million, and the Giacometti bronze Le Nez (1947), which sold to TRON founder Justin Sun for $78 million.

‘The extraordinary results we saw in November speak both to the exceptional calibre of the collection as well as to the boundless appetite that exists today in what is undoubtedly a deep market for masterpieces,’ said Mari-Claudia Jimenez, Sotheby’s Chairman. —[O]

Main image: Andy Warhol, Self Portrait (1986). Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas. 80 x 80 in. Courtesy Sotheby's.