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.
This sale matters because it signals a major vote of confidence in London’s auction market, which has faced perceived decline since Brexit, lagging behind New York, Paris, and Hong Kong. Sotheby’s Europe chairman Oliver Barker calls it “unequivocally the best thing that we've ever offered in London.” The decision to sell in London, rather than a competing market, is a calculated endorsement of the city’s continued relevance as the second-largest art market globally. Additionally, the sale reflects a generational shift in the Lewis family’s collecting focus, with daughter Vivienne now actively buying contemporary avant-garde works.