Sotheby's will open its first auction season in the Breuer building this fall with the Pritzker collection, a private cache of paintings never before seen outside a Chicago living room. The collection, built by Cindy and Jay Pritzker, carries an overall estimate north of $120 million, with the lead lot being Vincent van Gogh's 1887 still life *Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes)*, estimated at close to $40 million. Other highlights include works by Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Joan Miró, Camille Pissarro, and a 15th-century sea chart by Petrus Roselli.
The sale matters because it brings to market a major Van Gogh still life—one of only two privately owned examples from a rare series of nine—and because the Pritzker collection has remained largely unseen for decades, offering a fresh glimpse into a significant private holding. The auction also marks Sotheby's strategic debut in the iconic Breuer building, signaling a new chapter for the auction house's presence in New York.