Sotheby’s Unveils “Magnum Opus,” a $60 Million Collection Spanning Antiquity to Picasso
Sotheby’s is preparing to send more than 900 works from a single unnamed collector to auction, in a sale series the house has titled “Magnum Opus.” Estimated at more than $60 million, the collection moves across centuries and categories, from ancient sculpture and Old Master painting to carpets, furniture, tapestries, ceramics, and 20th-century art.
The first wave of sales will unfold in New York from October 21 to October 23, when about 600 works are expected to come to market. The remainder will be distributed through Sotheby’s New York and Paris sales through 2027, across roughly 25 categories that also include books and manuscripts, jewelry, prints and photographs, and design.
At the center of the offering is a marble torso of a Roman emperor from the Julio-Claudian period, dated to the first half of the 1st century CE and estimated at $8 million to $12 million. Sotheby’s says it is the most important Roman imperial sculpture to reach auction in more than a decade and the only example of its kind outside an institutional collection. An Augustan marble portrait head of a girl, dated 27 BCE to 14 CE, is also on offer, with an estimate of $2.5 million to $2.5 million.
The fine art selections include a Canaletto at $6 million to $8 million, a Degas pastel at $5 million to $7 million, a Luis Meléndez at $4 million to $6 million, a Jacob van Ruisdael at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, a Pablo Picasso at $1 million to $2 million, and works by Francesco Guardi and Max Ernst, each estimated at $1 million to $1.5 million.
The design material is equally ambitious. Among the highlights are the Bernheimer Safavid “Vase” carpet fragment from southeast Persia, estimated at $350,000 to $500,000; the Isfahan carpet from Central Persia, estimated at $400,000 to $600,000; the von Hirsch garden carpet from northwest Persia, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000; and an Iznik cintamani pottery tile from Ottoman Turkey, estimated at $120,000 to $180,000. Also included are a pair of Louis XVI giltwood Marquieses attributed to Georges Jacob, a rare pair of Brussels Chinoiserie tapestries, and Sèvres wine bottle coolers made for Marie-Antoinette in 1784.
Preview exhibitions will be held at Sotheby’s London from June 27 to July 1 and at Sotheby’s New York from June 27 to July 6. From October 17 to October 22, all four floors of Sotheby’s Madison Avenue headquarters will be devoted to the collection, offering a rare chance to see how one collector assembled a range of objects that crosses time, geography, and medium.
