Works from the collection of philanthropist and art collector Agnes Gund will be offered at Christie's November auctions in New York. Proceeds from the sales will benefit the Gund Art Foundation.
The leading lot is Vija Celmins's 1990 painting Untitled (Ocean), an image of the sea's surface estimated at $6 million to $8 million. It is scheduled for Christie's 21st Century Evening Sale on November 19.
Other featured works include Alexander Calder's 1963 mobile The Eye in the Black, estimated at $3 million to $5 million, and a 1997 bronze sculpture by Cy Twombly, with an estimate of $2 million to $3 million.
The collection also features art by Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Robert Ryman, Cecily Brown, Glenn Ligon and Sarah Sze. Ryman's 1961 painting is estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million, while Rauschenberg's 1953 Untitled (Gold Painting) carries an estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million.
The works will appear across the November 19 evening sale, a Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 20, and online auctions. Gund led the Museum of Modern Art as president from 1991 to 2002, donated more than 800 works to the museum and founded Studio in a School, which brings professional artists into public school classrooms.
By directing auction proceeds to an arts foundation, the sales continue Gund's legacy of connecting collecting with public benefit. Such initiatives can help keep art and arts education central to future cultural life.
