Art collectors have bankruptcy to thank for three upcoming auctions.
First up on Nov. 1 is the sale of the first portion of works belonging to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. by Freeman's Auctioneers. Items for sale include a Christo lithograph of wrapped buildings in downtown Manhattan ($1,000-$1,500 estimated winning bid), a collection of 10 photographs of 1930s New York by Berenice Abbott ($6,000-$10,000), nine photogravures of the Brooklyn Bridge by Walker Evans ($1,000-$1,500), a color etching by David Hockney ($7,000-$10,000) and paintings by French artists Georges Manzana Pissarro ($15,000-$22,000 total for two paintings) and Bernard Cathelin ($10,000-$15,000 for "La Ferme de la Plaine, Monteleger"). (Items not from Lehman's collection also will be auctioned, including several screenprints by pop art icon Andy Warhol and an Annie Leibovitz photograph of Yoko Ono and John Lennon.)
More items from Lehman's 650-lot collection of paintings, prints and drawings will be sold on Dec. 6 and Feb. 12. Freeman's expects to receive total proceeds of $1 million from the sales.
Also set for a December auction is Alitalia-Cia. Aerea Italiana SpA, whose bankruptcy commissioner hopes to raise €1 billion ($1.5 billion) or more through the sale of roughly 200 artworks, according to Bloomberg. Finarte Casa d'Aste SpA will sell the collection of Italian modern art, including works by Gino Severini, Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana.
Finally, Judge Gregory F. Kishel of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota on Aug. 28 cleared Polaroid Corp. to sell a collection of 16,000 photos and retain Sotheby's Inc. to auction all or some of the works. Sotheby's will conduct any auctions by June 2010, according to court papers, and may sell certain photographs privately. The auctioneer would receive a 10% seller's commission on any private sale and would charge the winning bidder at auction a buyer's premium.
Potentially headed for the auction block are small Polaroids by Ansel Adams, Brett Weston and Minor White; 70 or so large color Polaroids (mostly 20 inches by 24 inches) by William Wegman, famous for his shots of Weimaraners; murals and traditional photos by Adams; and works by Margaret Bourke-White, Imogen Cunningham, Robert Mapplethorpe, Warhol and Edward Weston.
Sales such as these by bankrupt companies are not unprecedented, of course. Scandal-tainted Refco Inc. and Enron Corp. both sold large collections. A May 5, 2006, sale of 34 photographs by Refco brought in $5.37 million, while auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Co. estimated the sale in 2003 of Enron's contemporary art and photographs would produce $1.3 million to $1.8 million for the company's estate. - David Elman
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