The art of breaking up
Couple sell masterpieces for £500m in divorce deal
ARTWORKS owned by US property magnate Harry Macklowe and his exwife have sold for more than £500million, after a high-profile divorce deal.
A batch of 35 works from the £297.5million Macklowe Collection by artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York.
No 7, a piece by abstract painter Mark Rothko, fetched £61.3million on Monday.
And, setting a new record for his work, Jackson Pollock’s Number 17, 1951 sold for more than £45million.
A collector in Asia snapped up Alberto Giacometti’s 1947 sculpture Le Nez for £58.3million.
Andy Warhol’s Nine Marilyns silkscreen, done shortly after actress Marilyn Monroe’s death in 1962, made more than £36million.
Harry and Linda Macklowe, who divorced in 2016 after 57 years of marriage, had a net worth of between £669million and £818million.
But they fought over the value of their art collection and in 2018 a judge ordered them to sell it and split the proceeds.
Mr Macklowe, 84, started work as an estate agent in New York, but quickly moved into property development and construction.
Keenly interested in architecture and modern art, he became known for developing sleek modernist buildings such as Manhattan’s Metropolitan Tower, as well as his starkly white minimalist offices.
But in 1985, he was fined $2million for demolishing four buildings in Times Square in the middle of the night.
Mr Macklowe’s business, Macklowe Properties, owns or has owned skyscrapers on the Big Apple’s most famous streets, including Park Avenue and Times Square.
Harry married Linda Burg in 1959 when the couple were in their early 20s. They went on to amass significant assets, which included a £53.5million apartment, yacht as well as many commercial properties.
The couple started to put together their art collection shortly after they married. Out of the two, Linda played the most part in securing the works.
In 2003, Mr Macklowe bought the General Motors Building for a record $1.4billion.
But the skyscraper’s value soon doubled after he persuaded Apple boss Steve Jobs to build a subterranean retail store beneath its plaza.
According to reports, Mr Macklowe left his wife for French financier Patricia Landeau, 67.
He and Linda have two children, William and Elizabeth. William replaced his father as president of Macklowe Properties in 2008. Gregoire Billault, of Sotheby’s, said: “It’s a collection that has never been moved or touched.
“Quite often when we have collections for sale, a lot has been sold already or some works are given to museums. Others are given to members of the family.”
A further 35 Macklowe-owned artworks will go on sale next year.