It's official: after Katya Kazakyna at Artnet News broke the news, Christie's has confirmed that it has acquired 16 award-winning pieces from the collection of media mogul and electronics collector SI Newhouse, which will be offered in a separate one-owner sale, Masterpieces: The Private Collection of SI Newhouse, which will open and headline the May Marquee and other $8 million auctions. works in Agnes Gund's collection.
The SI Newhouse selection will be led by Jackson Pollock's complete work: a memorial Number 7A (1948). Measuring 131.5 inches (334 cm) in diameter—the largest painting by Pollock remaining in private hands—the work displays a powerful composition executed in his signature drip technique, not unlike the example hanging in the Museum of Modern Art. It comes to auction with an estimate in the $100 million range; no similar work has appeared at auction in recent years. (The current Pollock auction record was set at Christie's in 2013, where Number 19 (1948), enamel on canvas, sold for $58.4 million.)
Boasting a remarkable provenance beginning with the photographer Herbert Matter, to whom Pollock gifted the work, and passing it on to collectors Kimiko and John Powers, this painting has been out of public view for almost a century, since its last display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1977. In November 2024, the small but remarkable painting was sold to Phillips for $15.3 million, although the auction later involved a lawsuit against the film producer David J. Mimran, who had agreed to serve as a third-party bidder but failed to pay.
Another top lot from the collection is a rare bronze The Danaïde by Constantin Brâncuși—bronze with gold leaf and black patina—appears at auction for the first time in decades and is the only example with gold in private hands. Created and cast in 1913, this gold statue incorporates images and visual traditions from across ancient civilizations and the modern era, from Egyptian sculpture in its styling to Greek mythology in its subject and East Asian iconography in its delicate finish. Of the six bronzes from this model, four are held in institutional collections: the Center Pompidou in Paris; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Tate in London; and the Kunst Museum Winterthur.
Originally acquired by Eugene and Agnes Meyer in 1914 at Brâncuși's first solo exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery in New York, it was later passed on to their daughter, who sold it to SI Newhouse at Christie's in 2002, setting a new record for any work of modern sculpture. It will now be offered at a valuation in the region of $100 million.
Additional highlights from the Newhouse selection include a sculpture like yours, Tête de femme (1909), a bronze, by Pablo Picasso, offered at an estimate of $40-60 million, combined with a Cubist painting of the same subject, estimated at $6-7 million. And from his Cubist period—and seminal in the continuous separation and fusion of planes by which Picasso defined this style— I played the guitar (1913), formerly in the collection of Gertrude Stein and the Museum of Modern Art, now comes to auction with an estimate of $35-55 million. More Picasso painting inspired by archaic and primordial forms, La femme enceinte, 1er état (1950s), bronze, is offered at an estimate of $18-25 million.
Alongside these historic works, Christie's will also present a rare and well-preserved square color composition by Piet Mondrian, Formation (1921), estimated at $35-65 million; an abstract, earth-tone painting by Joan Miró from 1924, estimated at $25-35 million; a powerful work by Henri Matisse from his sun-blessed Nice period in 1938, estimated at $30-50 million; and Francis Bacon Portrait Study I (after William Blake's Mask Life) (1955), with an estimate of 4-6 million dollars.
Completing the group are important works of Pop and Neo-Dada art, led by three important works by Jasper Johns from the mid-to-late 1950s: Figure 2, Alley Oop and his dignity Gray Targetestimated at $10-15 million, $6-8 million and $20-30 million, respectively. The last one was in the collection of renowned dealers Ileana and Michael Sonnabend in 1960, when Newhouse bought it in 1998, where it has remained a mainstay of his collection ever since.
The group also includes a mixed media collage by Robert Rauschenberg on canvas Go away (1955), estimated at $7-10 million; black and white floral composition by Roy Lichtenstein, The Voodoo Lilyestimated at $6-8 million; and an acrylic, graphite and crayon on linen work by Andy Warhol from his playful “Do It Yourself” series, dated 1962 and estimated at $20-30 million.
Newhouse's wealth is based primarily on Advance Publications, a privately held media empire that has been owned by the family for generations, whose portfolio includes Condé Nast, several regional newspapers and cable and digital platforms. In a few decades, the Newhouse family also assembled one of the most formidable private art collections in the United States—especially under the leadership of SI Newhouse, Jr., who aggressively built the collection from the 1960s onward, focusing on the art of his time and eventually amassing one of the most important private collections of postwar art.
Since SI Newhouse's death in 2017, works from his collection have been distributed at both public and private auctions, often with the involvement of Tobias Meyer, a former Suthu auctioneer who was once his trusted advisor. The first selection was auctioned at Sotheby's in 2018, generating nearly $300 million, led by art including Roy Lichtenstein at $46 million. Nude with Joyous Painting (1994), Jeff Koons $25.8 million Balloon Flower (Magenta) and a $25.8 million work by Francis Bacon. Christie's later received commissions for other works, including Koons' polished mirror You have a rabbit (1986), which sold for $91 million in 2019, became the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction at the time. Sixteen works from the collection sold by Christie's brought $178 million in May 2023, led by Willem de Kooning's. The Orestes (1947) at $31 million, and Francis Bacon's work at $34.62 million and the iconic Ed Ruscha at $22.3 million.
“SI has always looked for the highest quality, no matter what,” said Tobias Meyer in a statement. “He was also fearless in organizing his collection. He owned the most important paintings by the most important artists, sometimes selling, buying things from others, studying for many years and rigorously, putting together a collection without uniformity.” This latest batch of deals from Newhouse Holdings is expected to fetch a record high, with a combined estimate in the $450 million range. The lot will be presented chronologically, tracing the evolution of modern and contemporary artistic languages from the evolution of Post-Impressionism and Cubism to Pop art.
In December, Suthu included two other works of art that once belonged to Newhouse in its largest exhibition “Icons: Back to Madison” at its new headquarters: Warhol's. He shot Orange Marilynacquired by Newhouse for $17.3 million in 1998 at Sotheby's, and by Jasper Johns. False Beginnings (1959), which he bought in 1988 for $17 million, also in Suthwini. If that was a strategy to close the inheritance, it didn't work; Christie's easy financial terms and sales conditions clearly proved a strong argument.
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