Sotheby’s London will auction a collection of 50 masterpieces from billionaire Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne in June 2025, expected to exceed $200 million. Highlights include Gustav Klimt’s 1902 portrait of Gertha Felsőványi (estimate £20–30 million), Lucian Freud’s never-auctioned *Woman in a Grey Sweater* (1988), and Amedeo Modigliani’s *Homme à la Pipe* (1918), making its auction debut after 45 years unseen. The sale follows a successful March auction of School of London works from the same collection, which brought $47.7 million.
This auction matters because it signals renewed confidence in the high-end art market after a period of uncertainty, following last year’s record-breaking $136 million Pauline Karpidas sale. The fresh-to-market works—some unseen for decades—are expected to attract global collectors and could set new benchmarks for Modernist portraiture. The Klimt portrait, previously involved in a World War II restitution dispute, also highlights ongoing tensions between provenance history and market demand.