The Macklowe Collection

Sotheby’s

The Broads, the Rubells, the Raleses: married couples have assembled many of post-war and contemporary art’s most acclaimed collections as a kind of conjugal ritual. In those three cases, the fruits of their marital hobby spurred the founding of important museums. Not so the treasures amassed by Harry and Linda Macklowe. When the estranged bickering billionaires could not come to terms on the division of their Richters, Warhols and Rothkos, a fed-up judge ordered the trove go on the block.

Sold in two parts by Sotheby’s, the first instalment brought a US$676 million payday – a record for a single-owner sale – for 35 lots last November. Part two, in May, brought in a robust US$246.1 million.

With both the November and May auctions, new records were set for four artists: Jackson Pollock’s Number 17, 1951 sold for US$61.2 million; Agnes Martin’s Untitled #44 (1974) for US$17.7 million; Robert Irwin’s Untitled (1965-1966) for US$8.3 million; and Michael Heizer’s Track Painting (1967) for US$1.1 million. The sums were reflective of the museum-quality works, selected over the Macklowes’ 57-year marriage, dealers have said, primarily by Linda, a trustee of both the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Clockwise from left: Andy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies, 1964, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, in 16 parts; Pablo Picasso, Figure (Projet pour un monument à Guillaume Apollinaire), conceived in 1928, this version enlarged and executed in 1962, welded steel; Willem De Kooning, Untitled XXXIII, 1977, oil on canvas.