The $450 Million Marron Collection Is the Art Market’s Ultimate Prize. Now, Three of the World’s Top Rival Galleries Are Joining Forces to Sell It

In an unprecedented move that is likely to send shock waves
through the art industry, three top galleries are joining forces to
sell the storied collection of late philanthropist Donald Marron.
While it was widely assumed that Christie’s or Sotheby’s would
handle the estate, particularly after news surfaced that the
auction houses were scrambling to submit proposals last month,
the collection will instead by sold jointly by Pace, Gagosian, and
Acquavella. The arrangement is the strongest sign yet that the
traditional lines between galleries and auction houses are
blurring.

The group of some 300 works—reportedly worth upwards of $450
million—includes major paintings by such titans of Modern art as
Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Cy Twombly. The collection,
assembled over the course of six decades, will be shown at Gagosian
and Pace’s Chelsea galleries.

“All three galleries were very close to Don, and all
participated in building that collection with him,” Pace president
Marc Glimcher told Artnet News. “I think we’re trying to give some
new possibilities for what I think is a natural fit.”

Marron died from a heart attack in December at age 85. He began
building a sterling corporate collection back in the 1970s at the
brokerage company PaineWebber, where he went on to become CEO. From
1985 to 1991, he served as president of the board at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, famously promising a trove of works
from PaineWebber’s collection to MoMA in 2000. Glimcher said
any further museum donations had already been finalized at the time
of Marron’s death, leaving the rest of the collection available for
sale.

The family’s decision to offer the collection privately could
mark a turning point for the art business. With a few exceptions,
auction houses have historically kept a firm grip on the sale of
major estates and collections. They have been known to offer
aggressive financial guarantees to secure coveted property,
sometimes even giving the consignor a portion of their commission
and foregoing profit in order to earn the prestige of handling such
treasures. On the flip side, collections with sterling provenance
have often benefited from the flashy marketing and drama of
auctions, where a sense of excitement can see prices far exceed
expectations.

A New Model?

The Marron family appears to have wanted a nontraditional
approach. (Representatives for the family declined to comment on
the sale.) Part of the appeal, it seems, was the discretion
and speed the galleries could offer. If a work fails to immediately
find a buyer in today’s tentative market, it will not do so
publicly. Plus, the family may have seen a private sale as a way to
avoid competing at auction with the storied collection of divorcing
real estate titans Linda and Harry Macklowe, which is expected to hit the block
as soon as this spring as part of a court order.

Glimcher said the galleries would not disclose publicly what is
or is not available (although clearly some of the mystery will be
eliminated after the May exhibition), nor would they disclose an
estimate for the collection. (“The joy of private sales,” he
quipped.) The galleries expect the majority of the works to be
placed before the May show opens.

The unusual plan came together quickly. “I heard that [the
Marron family] were considering going to auction and I just picked
up the phone and called Larry [Gagosian] and said, ‘We should
really present an alternative to the family. It’s tragic for this
collection to go to auction,’” Glimcher recalled. After reaching
out to Bill Acquavella, who also had a longstanding relationship
with Marron, “we all came and presented an idea to the family of
how we would do it” around a month ago.

Pressed on the details of the deal, Eleanor Acquavella told
Artnet News that an NDA precluded her from divulging specifics, but
the galleries confirmed they took a page from the auction houses in
offering the family a financial guarantee. “When Marc called, I
really liked the idea of competing with the auctions on a great
estate. My father and brothers and I talked about it and thought it
would be hard to pull off,” she said. “We certainly had to
compete financially and otherwise” to win the business, she
added.

According to the Wall Street
Journal, Phillips, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s had offered
guarantees of at least $300 million for the collection. “The key
was to meet the fiduciary requirements of an estate which is
complicated,” said Andrew Fabricant, Gagosian’s COO. “We had to
convince the family and the lawyers. The challenge was to be
in line and competitive and still have some daylight for running
with an exhibition and sales.”

A Who’s Who of Modern Art

The storied collection is a who’s who of the Western canon,
encompassing works by Henri Matisse, Pablo
Picasso, Fernand Léger, Mark Rothko, Brice Marden, Willem
de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, and Gerhard Richter. The collection is
also particularly strong in works on paper, with highlights by Ed
Ruscha and Mark Grotjahn. Other contemporary figures represented
include Laura Owens and Jonas Wood.

“The scope of this collection is incredible,” Glimcher
gushed. “One of the responsibilities of our galleries—and we
represent many or most of the artists that are in the collection—is
to see that these works move one great collection to another.”

In addition to the exhibition, the collection will be
memorialized in a book (“not a catalogue,” Glimcher was
careful to point out, alluding to auction catalogues that included
price estimates) published by Phaidon. Further details about the
location and dates of the exhibitions are still being worked
out.

“We’re really all excited and honored to be given the chance to
do this,” Glimcher said. “We know we’re doing something that hasn’t
really been done before. We have a system in place and were able to
come together as a group to offer this.”

The post The $450 Million Marron Collection Is the Art
Market’s Ultimate Prize. Now, Three of the World’s Top Rival
Galleries Are Joining Forces to Sell It appeared first on
artnet News.