A Mystery Seller Will Offer $60 M. in Art and Design at Sotheby’s, Including Works by Canaletto, Degas, Guardi, Fragonard, and Picasso
Sotheby’s announced it will auction more than 900 works from an unnamed collector in a series of sales beginning in October, with a total estimate exceeding $60 million. Branded “Magnum Opus,” the collection spans antiquity through the 20th century and includes artists such as Canaletto, Edgar Degas, Max Ernst, Francesco Guardi, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Luis Meléndez, Pablo Picasso, and Jacob van Ruisdael. Four New York sales running 21–23 October will offer about 600 works, with additional sales in New York and Paris across roughly 25 categories continuing into 2027. Highlights include a Julio-Claudian marble torso of a Roman emperor (first half of the 1st century CE) estimated at $8 million–$12 million, a Canaletto estimated at $6 million–$8 million, a Degas pastel at $5 million–$7 million, and design objects such as Safavid and Isfahan carpets and a pair of Louis XVI giltwood marquises attributed to Georges Jacob (ca. 1785) estimated at $200,000–$300,000.
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This story was covered in Heatwave Museums, Restitution Storms, and Market Mysteries