Katya Kazakina has the announcement that Phillips will be selling Robert Motherwell‘s 10ft.-wide Elegy for the Spanish Republic series work, Five in the Afternoon with an estimate of $13m to $16m:

“They became his most famous paintings,” said Robert Manley, worldwide co-head of 20th century and contemporary art at Phillips. “He did them throughout his career, but most of them are in museums.” […]

The seller of the real-life Motherwell is Holly Hunt, a Chicago-based interior designer and entrepreneur, who said she bought it for less than $500,000 in 1981. For years, the 10-foot-wide painting was prominently displayed in her apartment overlooking Lake Michigan.

“It was my favorite piece in the collection,” said Hunt, who sold her furnishings company to Knoll Inc. for $95 million in 2014. “I am trying not to regret it.”

An Artist Favored by Axelrod in ‘Billions’ Is Poised for a Record Sale (Bloomberg)