Christie’s is to auction items from the Collection of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller to its 2008 season of sales at Christie’s in London and New York. Leading the collection are seventeen works which will be offered at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on June 24, and represent the most important and valuable collection of Impressionist and Modern art ever offered by Christie’s in Europe.

J. Irwin Miller, an industrialist from Columbus, Indiana, and his wife Xenia Simons Miller, were major philanthropists and patrons of the arts who were instrumental in turning Columbus in America into a showcase for modern architecture. Their passion for civic renewal was matched with a belief that art is an essential element of a meaningful life, and the seventeen Impressionist and Modern works together are expected to realize in excess of £40 million / $80 million.

Their collection is led by Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas, an expansive and important late water-lily painting, one of an extremely rare series of large-scale four paintings signed and dated by the artist in 1919 (estimate on request). Unlike most of the late work which remained unfinished in the studio at the artist’s death, these four works were released by the artist during his lifetime. One of the series is in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another was cut down and the third is in a private collection, having been sold at Christie’s New York in November 1992 for the then very significant price of $12,100,000.

Other major Impressionist and Modern works include an important Fauve portrait by Henri Matisse (estimate: £3,000,000-4,000,000); Pierre Bonnard’s luminous Vue du Cannet of 1927 (estimate: £3,000,000-4,000,000); a Marc Chagall still life (estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000); Compotier et guitare, a major Pablo Picasso still life of 1924 (estimate: £3,000,000-4,000,000); an exquisite 1911 cubist oil on canvas, also by Picasso (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000); superb watercolors by Wassily Kandinsky and Camille Pissarro’s vibrant street scene Cours du Havre, Gare Saint Lazare of 1893 (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000).

Elsewhere, six other works will be offered in Post-War and Contemporary Art sales in London, and at New York sales of American Paintings and Folk Art auctions in 2008. These six lots include significant pictures by Mark Rothko and a superb Edwards Hicks example from his much sought-after series The Peaceable Kingdom (estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000). In its entirety, the Collection is valued in excess of £45 million / $90 million.

International Auction Calendar

Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale

London, June 24

Led by Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas, an expansive and important late water-lily painting, one of a series of four paintings signed and dated by the artist in 1919 (estimate on request), other major Impressionist and Modern works to be offered on the evening include paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Wassily Kandinsky.

Post-War and Contemporary Art

London, June 30, July 1

Three paintings will be auctioned, led by Mark Rothko’s Black, White and Blue (estimate: £1,500,000-2,000,000).

American Furniture and Folk Art

New York, September 24

A superb example from one of the most sought-after American Folk Art picture series, Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000), will be included in this sale.

Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture

New York, December 4

Two works by Morris Hirshfield and Anna Mary Robertson Moses will be offered.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Posted: 05|18|08 at 9:39 am. Filed under: UK News.