Consignors Revealed? The Mystery Sellers Behind the $1.8 Billion May Auctions

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The big auction season has officially begun! On Thursday evening, May 14, Sotheby’s sold $433 million of art, including an 11-lot group from the late New York dealer Bob Mnuchin ‘s collection, led by a fiery $86 million Mark Rothko painting .

The big three houses are offering $1.8 billion worth of art by low estimate, a 50 percent jump from the $1.2 billion they anticipated last year. (They fell short of that, totaling only $1 billion before fees.) Driving the change are consignments from the estates of key art world figures like Mnuchin, philanthropist Agnes Gund , and dealer Marian Goodman .

The biggest trove arrives on Monday at Christie’s , as it stages an evening sale of work from publisher S.I. Newhouse ‘s collection, which is expected to bring $450 million and set new records for Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi .

There’s suddenly an embarrassment of Abstract Expressionist riches: Multiple Rothkos, Willem de Kooning s, Joan Mitchell s, and more are available. I can’t recall a Pollock of the Newhouse caliber at an auction in the past 20 years. Maybe ever.

Will wealthy buyers gobble it all up? There’s plenty of money out there, but many people got burned in the art market in the past three years. Other assets are vying for attention.

“Even though those guys who can walk out with $500 million of art in a season, they won’t,” a top art advisor told me. “Just like you would never go to a restaurant and order four entrées, just because you could afford to.”

Interviews with dealers and auction executives revealed a curious narrative emerging. Instead of pointing to heady future gains, like in years past, auction houses are highlighting the deals and discounts available this season.

An Andy Warhol that fetched $37 million in 2018 now has an estimate of $25 million at Christie’s. At Phillips , a small Pollock painting, once in Mnuchin’s collection, is estimated at $7 million, half of its $15.3 million sale price in 2024. (The buyer that time, film producer David Mimran , reneged, leading to a lawsuit and now the sale by the auction house.) There’s also a Claude Monet that went for $11.4 million in 2017, and is back on the market at Phillips with a presale estimate of $7 million to $10 million.

One of the named collections this season is the estate of New York art patrons Saul and Ellyn Dennison , the parents of Lisa Dennison , Sotheby’s chairman of the Americas. It includes works by David Salle , Richard Serra , Rudolf Stingel .

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“All have declined in value,” Dennison told me last week, before the auctions.

The Dennisons have sold advantageously—and privately—in the past, she said. They sold at auction just once before, parting with a small sculpture by Simone Leigh . They had bought the piece for $20,000 from West Palm Beach’s Gavlak Gallery in 2013, and it spent years in their kitchen, collecting grease, according to Dennison. Sotheby’s contemporary art expert David Galperin offered to sell it in 2022, during the market rush surrounding the artist’s U.S. pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He estimated it at $150,000 to $200,000.

“What if it doesn’t sell?” Dennison’s father fretted. The work soared to $2.2 million. “He couldn’t believe it,” Dennison said. “The market does what the market does.” (The Dennison group ended up outperforming expectations last week, with 23 works totaling $4 million compared with an estimate of $1.6 million to $2.3 million.)

While many top sellers are named, most are anonymous, concealed by official labels such as “distinguished collection,” “important private property,” or “American collection.” Below, I unmask some of those noteworthy names. As usual, the auction houses declined to comment on the identities of their clients.

John Sayegh-Belchatowski

The French collector and private art dealer was the seller of Jean-Michel Basquiat ’s 1983 painting Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) at Sotheby’s on May 14. Estimated at about $45 million, it hammered at $45.3 million—$52.7 million after fees. The lot was designated as “property from a distinguished collection,” and backed with a guarantee and irrevocable bid, ensuring it would sell. Sayegh-Belchatowski loaned the work under his own name to the sprawling Basquiat exhibition at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in New York in 2019.

The work had been on the private market “forever,” an auction house executive told me this week, with asking prices as high as $60 million. According to Sotheby’s provenance, the owner purchased the work in 2013 at Christie’s. At the time, it fetched $14.5 million, according to Artnet Price Database . (That would be $20.7 million today, after adjusting for inflating.)

Greg Renker

A cofounder of Guthy-Renker , a direct-marketing company of beauty and health products, Renker has a great eye. Two years ago, he offloaded an exquisite flower bouquet by Édouard Manet (one of his coveted final paintings) and a quartet of Mitchells at Sotheby’s.

This season, he is back as an anonymous Sotheby’s consignor, with a de Kooning painting and a Vincent van Gogh drawing. Both works are cover lots for their respective sales and each is designated as “property from an important private collection.” Both are guaranteed by the house and backed with third-party guarantees.

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De Kooning’s Untitled III (1975), a sumptuous, dynamic, and well-balanced beauty of a composition, fetched $23.5 million ($26 million with fees) at Sotheby’s on May 14. Estimated at $25 million to $35 million, the work was the talk of the trade in the days preceding the auction. But on the night of the sale, it drew just one bidder, its third-party guarantor. Renker bought the work privately in 2007. He lent it generously to exhibitions, including a few at his hometown Palm Springs Art Museum .

Van Gogh’s work on paper La Moisson en Provence (1888) is the second Renker lot. Estimated at $25 million to $35 million, it will be offered at Sotheby’s modern art evening auction on May 19.

The owner purchased the landscape in 2003 at Sotheby’s in New York, according to its provenance. At the time, it fetched $10.3 million, per the Artnet Price Database. (That’s $18.6 million, adjusted for inflation.) The Van Gogh has also been included in various exhibitions at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Deftly executed with ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper, the work depicts a Provençal plain “in the full heat of the sun, dotted with terracotta-roofed farm buildings and sporadic signs of human activity,” according to Sotheby’s. You can spot a medieval abbey in the distance and a mountain range beyond.

Stefan Soloviev

Works from the collection of the late real New York estate developer Sheldon Solow (1928–2020) are being sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s by his son Stefan Soloviev, who oversees the empire now. Some were part of the patriarch’s foundation, others hung on the walls of his apartment.

During his lifetime, Solow was known for his confidence in his art dealings. He would not take guarantees or irrevocable bids, but instead always negotiated a chunk of the buyer’s premium. Soloviev followed in his father’s steps, but the strategy backfired a year ago when he consigned a Giacometti bust to Sotheby’s. The $70 million estimate was too rich for the shaky market, dealers grumbled after it failed to sell.

This past Friday, May 15, Lichtenstein’s Girl in Mirror (1964) made $6.22 million at Sotheby’s, within its estimated range of $5 million to $7 million. The enamel-on-steel work, numbered five from an edition of eight (plus two artist’s proofs), was the top lot of the day sale.

Sotheby’s provenance lists a London auction in 2012 as the work’s last market outing, when it was purchased by the “present owner,” which is not technically accurate, considering that Solow has been dead for more than five years.

The Lichtenstein had been listed among the assets of the Solow Art and Architecture Foundation , according to its tax filings, which note the 2012 acquisition. It went for $3.7 million at the time, according to Artnet. (That’s about $5.37 million adjusted for inflation.)

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The same designation, “property from a distinguished private collection,” appears on the listing for the Alexander Calder ‘s mobile La Feuille Jaune (1954). Estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, it’s set to be offered in the Sotheby’s modern art evening sale on May 19. It was purchased for $2.13 million in 2012 (or $3.09 million today).

Two additional Solow lots are heading to the block at Christie’s 20th-century evening sale on May 18, both designated as “property from a distinguished private collection” as well.

Amedeo Modigliani ‘s portrait Almaïsa (1917) is estimated at $30 million to $40 million. It depicts a brunette in a dark dress. The sitter, who appeared in other paintings, is a bit of a mystery. It was bought in 2001 at Phillips in New York, Christie’s notes in the provenance section. A look on Artnet reveals that the price at the time was $6.5 million (or $12.2 million today).

The second Solow work is by Joan Miró , who was 23 years old when he painted Portrait de Ramon Sunyer (L’Orfèvre) in 1918. At the time, Miró was living in Barcelona and painting his friends and acquaintances—a goldsmith and jeweler named Ramon Sunyer in this case. Estimated at $8 million to $12 million, it’s been in the Solow family since 1979.

Lorenzo Fertitta

One of the top blue-chip art collectors is the anonymous consignor of Warhol’s iconic Double Elvis [Ferus Type] , which Christie’s describes as “property from a private American collection.” Painted in 1963, Double Elvis is one of 10 pieces from the same series, according to the auction house. It shows the singer in a publicity image, dressed as a cowboy and shooting from the hip. The work has traded many times. It had been owned by the Mugrabi family, whose Warhol holdings are among the largest in private hands. It last appeared at auction in 2018, when casino mogul Steve Wynn sold it for $37 million ($49 million today). That’s when the painting was acquired by the present owner, according to Christie’s. It’s now estimated at $25 million to $35 million.

Jamie D. McCourt

The former United States ambassador to France and Monaco, who served from 2017 to 2021, is the anonymous consignor of several lots designated as “property from an ambassadorial collection” at Sotheby’s. These include works by Alex Katz , Laura Owens , and Mary Heilmann . George Condo ‘s Figure on a Red Field (2016) sold for $5.85 million on May 14, surpassing the estimated range of $2 million to $3 million. It was acquired the year it was made from Skarstedt Gallery in New York, according to Sotheby’s. Jonas Wood ‘s Clipping J1 (2015) fetched $640,000, mid-estimate; it was purchased at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, also the year it was made.

Bruno Varon

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