Christie’s to Sell $25m in Schulhof Estate Works in November

The inimitable Pia Catton has the announcement of Christie’s sale of a portion of the Schulhof estate:

Christie’s is to announce on Wednesday the auction of 63 pieces from the collection, including work by Joan Miro, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Indiana, in sessions of its Impressionist and Modern Art Works sale and its Post-War and Contemporary Art sale in November. The total estimate is $25 million.

“The collection grew over time as my parents continued to buy things,” said Michael P. Schulhof, one the couple’s children. “The new pieces came in, and they tended to take a prominent place on the first floor” before eventually being pushed up to the second and third floors.

About 100 of the works from the couple’s Long Island home had previously been promised to three museums; the largest portion was designated for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and other gifts are intended for the Israeli Museum, Jerusalem and the Whitney Museum of American Art. […]

Among the items being sold are paintings and works on paper by Agnes Martin, whose work the Schulhofs collected abundantly enough to span her career. Of note is the painting “Untitled #20” from 1974 (est. $2 million to $3 million), which employs alternating bands of subtle pink and blue. “It’s been a long time we’ve had a painting like this,” said Ms. Paulson. “Until the late ’60s, [Martin] was working in a monochromatic way. Here, she’s bringing in the colors of the landscape.”

From a Long Island Home, Art for Many Collectors (Wall Street Journal)