Oliver Barker auctioneering Sotheby’s Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection and Contemporary and Modern Art evening auction © Rayan Bamhayan; courtesy Sotheby’s
The storied collection of Bahamas’ based billionaire financier Joe Lewis and that of his daughter Vivienne roared to £249.35/296.3 million with fees at Sotheby’s London on June 24, a record for any single owner sale in the UK.
The twenty-five works offered carried a pre-sale estimate of £190.2-273.6 million calculated without fees.
Only one lot, Edgar Degas’ “La Loge,” a pastel on paper from 1880 failed to sell in what otherwise would have been a ‘white glove’ sale.
Remarkably, nine of the 24 lots that sold went for over £10 million with Asian buying accounting for £100 million, a third of the grand total.
More importantly, none of the property was guaranteed, an unusual tactic in this rather cautious market climate and evocative of Lewis’ shrewd and aggressive investor instincts.
His choice of Sotheby’s over Christie’s was in some ways ironic in that Lewis through his holding company Abel Inc once held the largest stake of Christie’s stock when it was still a public company and listed on the London stock exchange, and sold it to Frenchman Francois Pinault for a reported £200 million in 1998, enabling Pinault and his holding company Artemis to acquire Christie’s and taking it private for £721 million.
It is estimated that Lewis made £100 million on the deal.
More recently, Lewis also made headlines after he plead guilty to insider trading charges in U.S. District court in New York and fined $5 million in 2024 and placed on three years’ probation. Last November he received a full pardon from President Trump.
Back in the salesroom, the action started bullishly with Gustave Caillebotte’s seven foot high “Portrait de Paul Hugot” from 1878 that drew at least six bidders and hammered at £8.5 /10.3 million with fees. It almost doubled the £4.5 million high estimate.
René Magritte, La Belle promenade, Sold for £16,035,000 – Courtesy of Sotheby’s
That bidding fervor continued with Ren Magritte’s always mysterious “La Belle promenade” from 1962, a 16 ½ by 11 ¾ inch gouache on paper that soared to £13.5/16 million with fees, selling to a woman in the packed New Bond Street salesroom and identified by the Baerfaxt as Katharina Otto-Bernstein, a noted German-American billionaire filmmaker.
Lewis acquired the gouache at Christie’s London in June 2014 for £2,260,500 with fees.
Max Beckmann, Artisten, Sold for £6,190,000 – Courtesy of Sotheby’s
The estimate busting action continued with Pablo Picasso’s striking “buste de femme” from 1938, capturing his muse and lover Dora Maar that streaked to £20.3/23.8 million with fees against a pre-sale estimate of £12-15 million and Max Beckmann’s expressionist composition of circus artists, “Artisen” from 1948 that made £5/6.1 million against an estimate of £2-3 million.
Lewis acquired bought the Beckmann at Sotheby’s London in June 2002 for £1,436,650.
Edgas Degas, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, Sold for £25,120,000 – Courtesy of Sotheby’s
The numbers gained more heft with Edgar Degas’s rail thin bronze ballerina, “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans,” complete with a muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon from a post-humous bronze cast from 1922 that brought £21.4/25.1 million with fees.
Lewis acquired it at Sotheby’s London in June 2015 for a then Degas sculpture record of £15.8 million with fees.
Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsőványi), Sold for £36,160,000 – Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Torrid bidding chased Gustave Klimt’s narrow and ethereal “Portrait of Gertud Loew,” the beautiful nineteen year- old daughter of Klimt patron Dr. Anton Loew from 1902 that streaked to £31 million/36,160,000 with fees.
In typical fashion, Lewis acquired it at Sotheby’s London evening sale in June 2015 for £24.8 million with fees and later loaning it for an extended stay at New York’s Neue Galerie.
Egon Schiele, Danaë, Sold for £17,932,500 – Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Fellow Austrian artist Egon Schiele was also part of the stellar blue chip mix with a posing nude, “Danaë” from 1909 in oil and metallic paint on canvas that hit £16,150,000/17,932,500 with fees, selling to an anonymous telephone bidder manned by Wendy Lin, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia.
The Schiele had been on extended loan at the Neue Galerie from 2017-2026, another characteristic of Lewis’s apparent interest in sharing his art with the public.
Modigliani’s 1917, Nu assis au collie, Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Though the bidding was luke warm, Amedeo Modigliani’s rather prim “Nu assis au collier” from 1917-18, the picture took top lot honors at £41.5 million/£48,235,000 against an unpublished estimate in the region of £45 million.
Lewis bought the nude back in May 1995 at Christie’s New York from the esteemed Ralph F. Colin collection for $11.3 million hammer.
A second Modigliani, “Homme à la pipe (Le Notaire de Nice), a charmer of a white bearded gent with a long stem pipe from 1918-19, realized £19.8 million/ £23,280,000 with fees, shattering pre-sale expectations of £12-18 milion.
Moving on from storied European artists to Great Britain stars and another kind of expressionism, Lucian Freud’s heavy weight nude, “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet,” capturing all of the startling flesh of seated Benefits Supervisor Sue Tilley from 1995-96 brought £25 million/£29,260,000 with fees.
Lewis bought it in 1996 for an undisclosed sum from Acquavella Galleries, Freud’s New York dealer when the paint must have been barely dry.
Freud’s one-time close friend, Francis Bacon and his double panel “Two Studies for Self-Portrait” from 1977 based on close-up photographs taken of the artist by Peter Stark sold for £7.1 million £8,675,000 with fees and closed out the School of London super-stars.
Lewis’s obvious penchant and passion for defining portraits by some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century’s artists certainly paid off.