Twelve works of impressionist and modern art from the collection of philanthropist Anne Bass will be sold at Christie’s this spring.
Among these works are paintings by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Mark Rothko. In total, the band is expected to gross $250 million. These pieces will be auctioned off in a single-owner sale held as part of Christie’s Modern and Contemporary Art sales in May.
Bass died aged 78 in 2020. The ex-wife of Texas tycoon Sid Richardson Bass, who amassed her wealth in the oil industry and later became a major Disney shareholder, she ranked in the Annual Report ART news List of the 200 best collectors between 1990 and 1994.
She began collecting in the 1970s and continued to develop a rich collection of impressionist and modern art. Bass has funded the Fort Worth Art Museum, the New York City Ballet, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and the New York Botanical Garden, and donated couture pieces to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The most popular works headed to Christie’s are two paintings by Rothko that once hung in the living room of Bass’s New York apartment.
One of them, Untitled (shades of red), receives an estimate of $60-80 million. The other, No. 1, an orange and pink abstraction, is estimated between 45 and 65 million dollars. Both are offered with guarantees.
Meanwhile, a set of three Monet paintings, each estimated at prices between $30 million and $60 million, will also go on sale. A version of Degas’ famous sculpture of a young dancer received an estimate of $20-30 million, and the painting by Balthus girl at the window, an interior view of a woman slumped over a living room window, is expected to sell for $4-6 million.
“Anne Bass’s collection represents everything today’s buyers are looking for,” Bonnie Brennan, president of Christie’s Americas offices, said in a statement, calling Bass “a sophisticated collector who knew perfection when she saw it.” ‘has seen’.
This is the second large batch of Impressionist and Modern artworks from a private collection at Christie’s last year, following that of the late Texas oil tycoon Edwin L. Cox. When pieces from Cox’s collection sold last year, they fetched $332 million.
Highlights of the Bass collection will tour Christie’s headquarters in London and Hong Kong, before being displayed in New York ahead of auction in May.