The Fall Bounty

Art auction houses thrive on big names and big numbers. Sales of major works by first-rate artists--preferably consigned by revered collectors--not only provide the allure of substantial profits, they create a sense of excitement that stokes the fires of the art market.

The phenomenon is particularly apparent in May and November, when marathons of Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art sales take place in New York. And this season’s version of the semiannual extravaganza is coming right up.

About $500 million worth of art will go on the block tonight through Nov. 20 at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. As the art market continues its steady rise following the boom and bust of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, collectors and dealers will find no shortage of ways to spend their money.

Among the choices are a classic painting of waterlilies by French Impressionist Claude Monet, valued at $6 million to $8 million; a provocative image of a nude young girl by the French artist known as Balthus ($4 million to $5 million); a Pop painting of a bridal couple’s hands and a wedding ring by Roy Lichtenstein ($1.5 million to $2 million); and a hyper-realistic, life-size sculpture of a spangled baton twirler by Duane Hanson ($90,000 to $120,000).

But all else pales next to this season’s opening event and star attraction: Christie’s sale of 115 Modern and contemporary artworks from the collection of the late Victor and Sally Ganz. It’s expected to bring a total of more than $125 million, the largest sum ever for an art auction from a single collection.

The 58 most valuable pieces will be offered tonight. At the top of the list is “The Dream,” an erotic painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting his mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. The auction has not published an estimated price for the painting, but experts peg it at around $30 million.

Along with a dozen prime Picassos, the sale includes 10 works by Jasper Johns, seven each by Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella, and four by Eva Hesse. In addition to Monday night’s sale, three dozen Ganz prints were sold last week for a total of $526,010, and 21 contemporary works from the collection will go on the block Nov. 19.

Touting the Ganz holding as “the greatest private collection of 20th century art ever offered at auction,” Christie’s has pulled out all the stops. In addition to its $80 hardcover catalog with fold-out color illustrations, the auction house has published a $100 book on the collectors with essays by 24 prominent scholars, museum directors, curators, critics and artists. Instead of displaying the consigned works for a few days, Christie’s has presented a specially designed, two-week exhibition both at its Park Avenue galleries and a nearby annex.

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Even in a business that is basically all about marketing, putting all these resources into selling a single collection is unusual. But so were the Ganzes. They fell in love with art that most people found extremely difficult at the time but is now greatly admired, and they bought it because they had to have it.

The Ganzes purchased their first Picasso, “The Dream,” shortly before they were married in 1941, for $7,000. Although they didn’t set out to build a collection, they carefully amassed a large holding of Picassos during the next 20 years. In sharp contrast to “The Dream,” their subsequent purchases tend to be tough images of contorted figures, with ominous layers of meaning.

In the 1960s, when Picassos became too expensive and the Ganzes developed an interest in the work of adventurous, younger artists, they concentrated on Johns, Rauschenberg, Stella and Hesse. Making no attempt to build a survey collection, they immersed themselves in the work of a few artists. In the case of Hesse, an influential conceptual sculptor, Victor Ganz is credited with discovering her work and elevating her status after her death of a brain tumor at 34, in 1970.

The Ganzes’ collecting is all the more remarkable because they were not nearly as wealthy as might be expected. They routinely extended themselves beyond their means to buy art, apparently with no thought of reaping a return.

Victor Ganz, who died in 1987, ran the family’s costume jewelry business, D. Lisner & Co. “Dad dutifully went to work for 50 years, but it didn’t engage him. Art was his passion,” said his son, Los Angeles-based film producer Tony Ganz. Victor’s wife, Sally Wile Ganz, who died this past January, shared that passion, but with a greater degree of practicality.

The couple lived comfortably in New York, but buying art kept them in debt until the 1960s. On one occasion, when Victor Ganz made a particularly big purchase, which he had promised his wife he would decline, he later claimed he had listened to a voice that sounded a bit like his own dictating a telegram of acceptance to the dealer. At his death, and that of his wife, all their assets were on the walls, Tony Ganz said.

In 1988, a year after Victor Ganz died, Sotheby’s sold 12 paintings from the collection--six Picassos and two works each by Johns, Rauschenberg and Stella--for a total of $48.5 million to pay estate taxes. After their mother’s death, Tony Ganz and his three sisters--Southern Californians Nancy Ganz Wright and Victoria Ganz DeFelice, and Kate Ganz Dorment, an art dealer based in New York and London--divided the collection. They kept more than 100 of the least valuable works and consigned the rest.

“We always knew we would have to let the collection go, and so did our parents,” Nancy Wright said. Even so, the impending auction has stirred poignant memories.

Recalling family meals in the dining room, surrounded by Picassos, Wright said she and her siblings sometimes played a game, asking each other, “Which one do you want?” “I wanted ‘Sailor,’ but of course it ended up that none of us could have any of them,” she said. The 1943 painting of a seated figure in a blue-and-white-striped shirt bears an estimated price of $4.5 million to $6 million.

“We knew the art was valuable and we shouldn’t touch it,” Nancy said, “but our parents didn’t present the art with special lighting or decorate around it,” she said. “We just lived with it.” When Tony spent his first night away from home with a young friend, he asked his friend’s mother where they kept their Picassos.

As the only Ganz offspring who has caught “the virus,” Tony has given a lot of thought to what made his father a legendary collector. “More than anything else, he believed in the importance of looking hard at art. If you weren’t thoughtful and didn’t invest yourself in the act of looking, you would never get what art at its best can offer,” he said.

Wright agreed. “When someone said, ‘I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like,’ he would respond, ‘That’s impossible,’ ” she said.