Sotheby’s traditional mid-season sale that coincided with the Armory Fair and ADAA has recently been re-christened Contemporary Curated, often using social figures and celebrities to generate interest in the works. This March 2nd, the auction house is taking another tack. Before the Contemporary Curated sale, Sotheby’s will hold a single-owner sale of the Ed Cohen and Victoria Shaw collection.

Here’s Sotheby’s release on the sale:

Titled In Its Own Light, the auction is largely focused on Post-War and Contemporary Art, including examples of German Expressionism and Modern British art. The New York couple’s collection was created over 35 years and reflects the close relationships (often grounded in a shared passion for literature), between Ed Cohen and many of the artists represented, as well as with gallerists such as Anthony d’Offay and Marian Goodman. The sale is estimated to fetch $4/6 million and will be immediately followed by the Contemporary Curated auction.

Ed Cohen is also known as a generous supporter of a number of museums, most notably the Tate where a gallery is named for Mr. Cohen. Among notable gifts to the London institution was his crucial support for the acquisition of the groundbreaking Joseph Beuys sculpture, The End of the Twentieth Century.

Highlights include pieces by Joseph Beuys, John Currin, Cecily Brown, Brice Marden, Anselm Kiefer, Agnes Martin, William Kentridge and Gerhard Richter. Richter was collected in particular depth with a range of works – from a smaller-scale example of the artist’s signature abstraction, to examples from the important, but less well-known Souvenir and Painted Photograph series.

Further highlights include Croatian artist, Mangelos, whose work has never appeared at auction despite being collected in depth by the Museum Of Modern Art, New York, and Albert York, a reclusive but deeply admired painter of Long Island’s East End.