Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 54 link 16 artists

British billionaire's £200m art collection most expensive ever offered in UK

British billionaire Joe Lewis will sell a tranche of his art collection in a standalone sale at Sotheby’s in London this June, estimated at £150m–£200m. This makes it the most valuable single-owner collection ever offered in the UK, surpassing the Pauline Karpidas collection which totalled £101m. Highlights include Gustav Klimt’s *Bildnis Gertrud Loew* (est £20m–£30m), Amedeo Modigliani’s *Homme à la pipe* (est £12m–£18m), and Francis Bacon’s *Two Studies for Self-Portrait* (est £8m–£12m). The sale follows a smaller March auction of four works from the Lewis collection that focused on School of London artists.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 26, 2025 visibility 16 link 12 artists

rare basquiat sothebys contemporary auctions in new york 1234739897

Sotheby's will auction a rediscovered early Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from 1981, unseen for 36 years, with a $10–15 million estimate at its Contemporary Evening Auction in New York this May. The sale also features major works from three tightly held private collections: the estate of Barbara Gladstone, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and Daniella Luxembourg's 'Im Spazio' group, alongside top lots by Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Ed Ruscha. The Modern Evening Auction includes a Pablo Picasso musketeer portrait and a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, with combined estimates for both sales reaching up to $525.2 million.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 20 link 13 artists, 2 galleries

Basquiat's monumental work on paper sells for US$16.3m, leading Sotheby's contemporary sale in New York

On May 15, Sotheby's held The Now and Contemporary Evening Sale in New York, achieving a total of US$127.1 million. The top lot was an untitled 1981 work on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which sold for US$16.3 million after a five-minute bidding battle. The sale included 41 lots with a 92.6% sell-through rate, and all nine works from the collection of Roy and Dorothy Leichtenstein were sold, contributing US$29 million to the total.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

picasso panama papers ganz collection 469646

The Panama Papers leak has revealed that the 1997 sale of the Victor and Sally Ganz collection at Christie's New York was secretly orchestrated by billionaire currency trader Joseph Lewis. Lewis had already purchased the top works from the collection through a Christie's subsidiary, Spink & Son, months before the auction, and structured a guarantee that shared profits above $168 million. The sale, which set a private collection auction record at $206 million, included Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers (version O)" fetching $31.9 million. The documents also confirm that a Modigliani painting involved in a Nazi restitution case belongs to the Nahmad family.

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trending_up market schedule May 13, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

Five Big Lots to Watch as New York’s Spring Auctions Spring Into Action

New York's May auction season has begun, with Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips presenting major works by artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Cecily Brown, and Marlene Dumas. Highlights include Basquiat's 'Baby Boom' (estimate $20–$30 million) at Christie's, a Basquiat 'Untitled' (1981) at Sotheby's, and Marlene Dumas' 'Miss January' (1997), which could break the auction record for a living woman artist. Sotheby's will also feature works from the late dealer Barbara Gladstone's collection, while the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is deaccessioning Frank Stella's 'Adelante' and other works to fund new acquisitions.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

Early Basquiat to Lead Sotheby’s Contemporary Auctions -

Sotheby’s will offer a rare untitled 1981 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat at its Contemporary Evening Auction in New York, estimated at $10–15 million. The work, unseen for 36 years, has been held in a private collection since 1989 and captures the raw energy of Basquiat’s breakout period. Other highlights include Lucio Fontana’s *Concetto spaziale, La Fine di Dio* (1963), Robert Rauschenberg’s *Combine Rigger* (1961), Frank Stella’s *Adelante* (1964), and Ed Ruscha’s *That Was Then This Is Now* (1989). The auction is built around three major private collections: the estate of gallerist Barbara Gladstone, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and the “Im Spazio” group assembled by Daniella Luxembourg.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 27, 2025 visibility 10 link 6 artists

Basquiat Work Expected To Fetch Up To $525M At Sotheby’s Auction

A recently discovered early painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, created in 1981 when he was 20, will be sold at Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in New York on May 13. The untitled work, unseen publicly for over 30 years, carries an estimate of $10 million to $15 million. Sotheby’s chairman Grégoire Billault highlighted the piece as a highlight of the Modern Evening Auction, with exhibitions opening May 2 through May 15. The auction also features top lots from Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, and the collections of Sally and Victor Ganz and Barbara Gladstone.

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