Sotheby’s marquee sales this November in New York will be led by works from the collection of the beauty industry trailblazer Sydell Miller. The auction is expected to generate around $200 million, Sotheby’s said in a press release, will include masterpieces of Modern and Contemporary art, sculptures, and design icons.
Notable works in the collection include a fresh to the secondary market Monet, Nymphéas (1914-17), for around $60 million, and Pablo Picasso‘s La Statuaire (1925), a portrait of a woman sitting across from a life-sized bust which itself sits on a pedestal and, like the woman, stares deeply at the viewer. La Statuaire is estimated to fetch around $30 million. The sale will also include works by Wassily Kandinsky, Henry Moore, and Yves Klein.
“Sydell Miller was a great 20th century collector, and the roll call of great artists and designers in her collection speak to both the breadth of her vision and the depth of her connoisseurship. What stands out is the thread that runs through every painting, sculpture and object—that of Miller’s eye for beauty as she innately understood it,” Charles Stewart, Sotheby’s chief executive said in the release.
Sotheby’s will host curated exhibitions of the collection in London, Paris, and Hong Kong, where it recently launched a chic new location in the city’s Landmark Chater area, leading up to the main auction event.
Miller’s journey began in the beauty industry. She co-founded Ardel and Matrix Essentials with her husband Arnold Miller and the two steered it into becoming one of the largest manufacturers of salon products. In 1994, two years after her husband’s death, Miller sold the company to Bristol Myers Squibb for $400 million. She then turned her focus to philanthropy and art collecting. Her legacy extends beyond the art world, with significant contributions to institutions like the Cleveland Clinic, where the Sydell & Arnold Miller Family Pavilion is named in her honor.
Miller’s collection will be featured in both evening and day sales, as well as three online sales featuring Miller’s wide range of interests, from fashion to decorative arts. A portion of the auction proceeds will benefit several charitable causes dear to her, including the Cleveland Clinic Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
