Three galleries – Pace, Gagosian, and Acquavella – have been selected to sell, jointly and privately, works from the Donald B. Marron Family Collection. The arrangement was agreed on 18 February by Donald Marron’s widow, Catherine. The galleries expect the majority of the works to be placed with new owners, representing great collections, this spring.
Works from the Marron collection will be exhibited from April 24 to May 16 at Pace and Gagosian in Chelsea (New York). The timing, not coincidentally, coincides with Tefaf New York Spring and Frieze New York.
Works to be exhibited include Pablo Picasso’s “Femme au beret et la collerette” (“Woman With Beret and Collar,” 1937; already sold) and Mark Rothko’s “Number 22 (Reds)” (1957). Select works will be loaned from institutions to highlight those from the Marron family collection.
Asking prices will be publicized only for works that remain unsold by the time of the exhibition.
Observes Marc Glimcher, president of Pace, “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 from one great collection to another.”
Donald B. Marron passed away on 6 December 2019 at the age of 85. He had served as President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of PaineWebber. While at PaineWebber he helped initiate the company’s corporate art collection. PaineWebber, founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1880, was acquired by Swiss banking giant (and sponsor of Art Basel) UBS in 2000. From 1985 to 1991 Mr. Marron served as president of the board of trustees of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Over the course of decades a collection of approximately 300 works, with a reported worth of upwards of $450 million, was assembled. The collection includes paintings by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Cy Tombly, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, Brice Marden, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, and Gerhard Richter amongst others.
Reflects Pace’s Marc Glimcher, “All three galleries were very close to Don, and all participated in building that collection with him.”
Eleanor Acquavella told Artnet News that “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. … We certainly had to compete financially and otherwise.”
Said Andrew Fabricant, COO of Gagosian, “The key was to meet the fiduciary requirements of an estate, which is complicated. 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.”
Sales have commenced. Kelly Crow of The Wall Street Journal reports that billionaire former casino-resort magnate Steve Wynn, who appears on ARTnews‘ list of Top 200 Collectors, has paid around $105 million for two paintings by Pablo Picasso, “Woman with Beret and Collar” (1937) and “Seated Woman (Jacqueline)” (1962).
See:
Eileen Kinsella, “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,” Artnet, 19 February 2020
Tim Schneider, “The Gray Market: Why History Equipped the Mega-Dealers to Win the $450 Million Marron Estate (and Other Insights),” Artnet News, 24 February 2020
Margaret Carrigan, “Donald B. Marron’s $450m collection to be sold by Acquavella, Gagosian and Pace galleries in New York,” The Art Newspaper, 19 February 2020
KellyCrow, “SteveWynn Pays $105 Million for Pair of Picassos,” The Wall StreetJournal, 24 February 2020
Tessa Solomon, “Embattled Billionaire Collector Stephen Wynn Buys Two Picassos From the Marron Estate for $105 M.: Report,” ArtNews, 24 February 2020