Christie's $1.1bn Newhouse and 20th Century Sales Set Records

Christie’s back-to-back evening auctions of the S.I. Newhouse collection and its 20th century evening sale in New York on May 19, 2026, achieved $1.1bn with fees, at the high end of pre-sale estimates of $823m to $1bn. The Newhouse sale, titled Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse, was a white-glove affair with 100% sold, though entirely backed by third-party guarantees. Among 30 of 47 lots covered by guarantees, highlights included Constantin Brancusi's Danaïde (1913) at $107.5m with fees, a record for the artist, and Jackson Pollock's Number 7 A (1948) at $181.8m with fees, also a record. Pablo Picasso's Tête de femme (Fernande) fetched $48.3m, and Joan Miró's Portrait de Madame K set a record at $53.5m. The Newhouse 16-lot trove totaled $630.8m with fees, bringing the estate's overall total to $1.05bn. The 20th Century evening sale added $490.3m with fees, led by Mark Rothko's No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) from the estate of Agnes Gund at $98.3m, a record for the artist. Other notable sales included Cy Twombly's Untitled (1961) at $45.4m and Roy Lichtenstein's Anxious Girl at $46.06m. A Modigliani portrait was withdrawn. The sales demonstrated strong demand from a small number of bidders, with many lots going to anonymous telephone bidders. Christie's subsequent sale of Marian Goodman's Gerhard Richter works will further test the market.