Garbo’s Art and Antiques Collection to Go on Auction Block

The art and antiques collection of Greta Garbo, valued in excess of $20 million, will be sold by Sotheby’s auction gallery in mid-November, it was announced today.

John Marion, president of Sotheby’s North America, said the collection reflects the “unique vision, sensitivity to color and sophisticated taste” of the film star, who died in New York on April 15 at the age of 84.

“For more than 50 years, Greta Garbo acquired art and antiques with the eye and passion of a serious collector,” Marion said.

Proceeds from the sale will go to Garbo’s estate, which was left to a niece, Gray Reisfield, wife of a New Jersey gynecologist and resident of Passaic, N.J. Garbo’s will is being contested by a nephew in Sweden who was not named as a beneficiary.

Marion said Garbo’s collection includes a number of important French Impressionist and modern paintings including three intimate scenes by Renoir, a Bonnard still life, and works by Van Dongen, d’Espagnat, Jawlensky, Rouault and Valtat.

Her furniture, he said, is mainly French 18th Century, and will be sold along with Savonnerie carpets and European and Chinese ceramics, rare books, and a group of decorative paintings and drawings.

Most of the lots in the one-owner sale have been removed from Garbo’s apartment on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street, according to Sotheby’s. They are the first of Garbo’s possessions, which include important Los Angeles real estate and other investments, to be sold.