Sotheby’s Quietly Tried to Sell Arne Glimcher’s Pollock for $50 M.—It Didn’t Go as Planned
Sotheby’s attempted a highly secretive private auction on June 2 at its Manhattan Breuer Building for Jackson Pollock’s Number 19, 1951, owned by Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher, with an asking price reported at $50 million. Sources said Sotheby’s flew in star auctioneer Oliver Barker from London and circulated a video pitch to prospective buyers emphasizing Glimcher’s reluctance to sell. The effort reportedly failed to attract enough bidders and was called off, though it is unclear whether the work was later sold privately, returned to Glimcher, or remains with Sotheby’s. The painting, nearly five feet tall and four feet wide, has been publicly exhibited, including in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1999 Pollock retrospective.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Restitution Wars and the Auction Market’s Misfires