Whitney collection up for sale

Not the Whitney Museum, but nearly as good:

More than 40 Impressionist and modern paintings from one of the last great American collections in private hands are to be sold at Sotheby's in New York on May 5, the auction house announced yesterday. Sotheby's estimates the sale could bring $140 million to $190 million.

The collection includes works by Manet, Degas, Monet and Sargent as well as a rare Rose Period Picasso, "Boy With a Pipe." It was formed over two generations beginning with Payne and Helen Hay Whitney, heirs to a fortune made from oil, tobacco, street railways and real estate and then by their son, John Hay Whitney, the sportsman, financier, publisher and former ambassador to Britain, and his wife, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney.

Experts say the Picasso, which Sotheby's estimates to sell for $70 million, could well become the most expensive painting ever sold at auction

From the NY Times, which also notes:

The Whitneys. . . formed their collection with the advice of John Rewald, the curator, teacher and expert on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art who died in 1994, and John Richardson, the Picasso biographer.

It takes more than money to form a great collection; although it is common to praise wealthy collectors' acquisitional acumen, it is too seldom emphasized how often this is based on knowing how to select and listen to the right advisors.

Posted by David on January 15, 2004 11:55 AM