Christie's to auction the Ann & Gordon Getty collection Canaletto - Entrance to the Grand Canal looking EastClaude Monet - Lavacourt lhiver In October 2022, Christie's will auction the Ann & Gordon Getty collection, which includes 1,500 works of decorative and fine art valued at around $180 million. Images: Canaletto, "Entrance to the Grand Canal looking East, with Santa Maria della Salute at right" ·· Claude Monet, "Lavacourt, l'hiver" -- Claude Monet, "Lavacourt, l'hiver" -- Claude Monet, "Lavacourt, l'hiver". As the art market gears up for one of the most exciting months of May in recent years, with a series of a priori historic auctions including a Marilyn by Warhol valued at $200 million, Christie's is already announcing some of the blockbusters for the autumn auction season. Described by Christie's as "a symphonic tour-de-force of masterpieces drawn meticulously from history’s most esteemed collections and from one of America’s most storied interiors", the proceeds from the sale of the Ann & Gordon Getty collection will go to the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation for the Arts, dedicated to the support of arts and science organisations. Among all the paintings announced, the one with the highest pre-sale estimate (in the region of $6 million) is "Entrance to the Grand Canal looking East, with Santa Maria della Salute at right", a classic veduta by the vedutista par excellence, Canaletto. The composition chosen here by Canaletto is similar to that of another of his paintings, formerly owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sold just over two years ago at Sotheby's for $5.3 million, a reference that certainly supports Christie's estimate for the Getty painting. Painted in 1902, Henri Matisse's "Chrysanthèmes dans un vase de Chine" is a beautiful proto-Fauvist still life with a pre-sale estimate of around $4 million. Christie's already auctioned this painting in 1995, when it fetched $1.3 million. "Lavacourt, l'hiver" is a winter scene by Claude Monet, similar in composition to "La Berge à Lavacourt, neige", which Sotheby's sold last year for just over $3 million. Two other Impressionist works in the collection are a female portrait by Mary Cassatt and a study by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. "The Getty Collection is one of America's legendary treasures," said Bonnie Brennan, President of Christie's Americas. "It tells a prolific international story of passion and patronage—the life’s work of an extraordinary American family whose philanthropy has indelibly shaped the arts and culture in the United States. We are honored to have been entrusted by Gordon and the late Ann Getty to share their incomparable collecting journey with a global audience, and, through the sale of their collection at Christie’s, to continue their commitment to supporting the arts and sciences through the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation for the Arts.”
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