Vivendi to sell art, photos

Vivendi Universal has chosen two New York auction houses to sell its modern art and photography collection -- valued at about $15 million -- this spring as part of an effort to decrease the Paris-based entertainment conglomerate’s multibillion-dollar debt.

Christie’s will offer the modern art holding, which includes works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Mark Rothko, at an auction that has yet to be scheduled. Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg will put the collection of photographs on the block April 25-26.

The collection was principally assembled by Phyllis Lambert, an architect and daughter of Seagram tycoon Samuel Bronfman, to decorate the landmark Seagram Building on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

The best-known work is a 22-foot-high curtain painted by Picasso in 1919 for Diaghilev’s ballet “Le Tricorne,” which has been a fixture of the Four Seasons Restaurant since the building was completed in 1959. Vivendi acquired the collection when it bought Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in December 2000.

-- Suzanne Muchnic