Collectors Ogle Warhol Collections : 10,000-Item Estate Sale, Opening Today, Is Expected to Top $15 Million
“Garbage. It’s all garbage,” hissed a balding man in a tweed sport coat as he inspected Andy Warhol’s collections, to be sold at a 10-day auction starting today at Sotheby’s. The highly publicized affair is expected to yield at least $15 million to benefit the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
A pre-sale exhibition of the 10,000 objects--from a stuffed bobcat and a tatty batch of board games to valuable Art Deco silver and contemporary painting--has had a few detractors, but nearly everyone milling around the York Avenue auction house this week seemed thrilled to see the late Pop artist’s collections up close and to dream of buying something.
“Oh, I want that in the worst way,” a young woman in jeans and a flannel shirt confided to her companion when she laid eyes on a 27-piece set of Staffordshire porcelain adorned with scenes from a fox hunt. It could be hers for $400 to $500, according to the catalogue listing estimated prices established by Sotheby’s.
“Just look at the cookie jars,” squealed a stylish matron as she eyed a display of more than 300 models shaped like bears, owls, tugboats, windmills, clowns and apples.
Throughout the three-floor display, prospective buyers scrutinized the merchandise--opening bureau drawers, checking out the back sides of rugs, running their hands over sharkskin-covered furniture, trying on jewelry and scribbling lot numbers on little scraps of paper. Some viewers had their pictures taken outside near Warhol’s 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, which goes on the block Sunday afternoon when it is expected to bring between $15,000 and $20,000.
People came from New Jersey, Maryland and Florida. Tanya Hunter and Veronica Manussis flew in from London, hoping to buy Art Deco jewelry for Cobra and Bellamy, their decorative arts gallery. “I feel sick,” Manussis said. “There’s so much of such fabulous quality. Never mind that Andy Warhol owned it. This kind of material never comes on the market. Because he never wore the jewelry, it’s in mint condition.”
The two British dealers said they think the opening-day sale of Art Nouveau and Art Deco material will soar past its estimated total of between $1.5 million and $2.2 million. Ian Irving, a Sotheby’s silver expert, tentatively agreed: “Of all the sales (in the Warhol auction), that one is most likely to double its estimate.”
Sotheby’s has divided the eclectic cache that was crammed into Warhol’s six-story townhouse into 2,526 lots. They will be sold in six separate auctions to be conducted over 10 days. At today’s offering, Art Nouveau and Art Deco ware ranges from posters to rare French furniture, bearing estimates from $200 to $100,000.
A three-day sale of lower-priced collectibles, jewelry, furniture, decorations and paintings on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday is expected to fetch between $725,000 and $990,000.
Stunning jewelry and an amazing selection of watches, to be offered Wednesday, is estimated to bring between $590,000 and $795,000.
Warhol’s American Indian Art collection, from $485,000 to $710,000 worth, will be snatched up by the highest bidders on Thursday. Friday and next Saturday, a sale expected to total between $3.18 million and $4.4 million includes Americana and European and American paintings, drawings and prints.
The final event, May 2 and 3, features contemporary art. Flaunting names such as Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray--but none of Warhol’s own artwork--the grand conclusion is estimated to ring up a total of at least $3.21 million but not more than $4.22 million.
As is customary, Sotheby’s did not consider Warhol’s ownership when setting estimates. Citing the artist’s enormous popularity, some collectors and dealers have speculated that the whole auction may yield as much as $40 million.
The whole affair and its attendant publicity has Sotheby’s staff reeling and talking wistfully of six-month vacations. “Organizing the sale was akin to the Second World War,” said a weary Michael L. Ainslie, Sotheby’s president and chief executive officer. In addition to the daunting task of sorting and cataloguing 10,000 items that required the expertise of 27 curatorial departments, the firm had to prepare for a deluge of Warhol fans who have no auction experience.
To that end, Sotheby’s has prepared a two-page list of advice for first-time bidders. The list and maps of the exhibition areas are dispensed at a temporary desk in the lobby.
Novices who are too timid to raise a paddle and anyone who cannot attend the auction can place a written bid before the sale, an option that many have exercised. “By the second day of the exhibition, we had order bids on every single watch,” said John L. Marion, principal auctioneer. “It’s incredible.”
