Art Auction Draws Record $206 Million

NEW YORK —  In one of this century’s most anticipated auctions, bidders Monday paid $206.5 million at Christie’s for 57 works from the Victor and Sally Ganz collection of modern art. It was the largest sum ever recorded for a sale of a single collection.

Pablo Picasso’s lyrical and erotic painting, “The Dream,” described by critics as one of the masterpieces of modern art, sold to an anonymous collector for $48.4 million. The work had been estimated at $30 million before the sale.

The price was the second-highest amount ever paid for a Picasso. “Pierrette’s Wedding,” a work from the artist’s earlier Blue Period, was purchased by a Japanese businessman for $51 million at auction in Paris in 1989.

Applause filled the standing-room-only gallery when Christopher Burge, Christie’s chairman and chief auctioneer, banged the final gavel for the sale of a work that Picasso completed in a single day in 1932.

“What a thrilling night it was. What a long night it was,” Burge said after the auction. “ . . . What a tribute it was to Victor and Sally Ganz.”

“Our parents collected art because they loved it, not because of profit or recognition,” said Nancy Ganz Wright, one of the couple’s three daughters, fighting to hold back tears. The Ganzes’ son, Tony Ganz, is a film producer in Los Angeles.

Making Monday’s $48.4-million price all the more remarkable was the fact that a similar painting of the same model, the artist’s mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, brought less than half that amount at auction two years ago.

In all, a dozen Picassos brought in $164.2 million at the evening’s sale.

Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O),” painted in 1955--one of 15 canvases based on a work by Delacroix--sold for $31.9 million. His 1913 “Woman in an Armchair (Eva),” a Cubist work, fetched $24.7 million.

As is often the case, most of the purchasers were not identified, though Burge said 63% came from the United States and “the enormous bulk of the buying was [by] private buyers.”

A Jasper Johns painting, “Corpse and Mirror,” sold for $8.4 million, and Frank Stella’s “Turkish Mambo” went for $3.9 million.

But the Robert Rauschenberg painting, “Rigger,” did not sell because bidding did not reach the minimum price asked. It was the only work that was withdrawn Monday evening.

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Before the auction began, estimates were that it would bring in more than $125 million. When the total for a group of prints sold Nov. 3-4 by Christie’s are added, the Ganz collection drew $207 million. The previous record for a single collection was $135 million for the John T. Dorrance collection of fine art, Chinese works of art, furniture and objects of virtu, sold in 1990 by Sotheby’s.

Over 50 years, Victor and Sally Ganz, who were not wealthy but were dedicated art lovers with highly discerning eyes, crafted a collection that included works by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, from Picasso to Rauschenberg, Johns, Stella and conceptual sculptor Eva Hesse.

Ganz, who died in 1987, ran his family’s costume jewelry business, D. Lisner & Co., in New York City. On Saturdays, almost without fail, he and his wife, who shared his vision and passion for art, toured galleries and talked with artists, sometimes in their studios.

Ganz was methodical. He carried a little black book listing the galleries he wanted to visit and the shows he wanted to view. Often the couple would not come home until every item on the list was crossed off.

In many cases, the artists the Ganzes visited became extended family. Unlike collectors who are motivated by status or potential profits, the Ganzes bought because of the personal relationship they forged with the paintings they placed on their walls.

In their home, there were no ornate frames and no special lighting. The family, including the four children, lived with their art, which filled every room of their Park Avenue apartment and overflowed to a basement gallery they created in the building. Later, they bought a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Before they were married, the Ganzes made their first major purchase--Picasso’s “The Dream.” They fell in love with the work, which has been described as one of the most beautiful female portraits in the history of European painting.

According to Picasso’s biographer, John Richardson, the painting’s story began outside the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris one freezing afternoon. Picasso was captivated by the sight of a very young, voluptuous blonde with intensely piercing blue eyes. She was the quintessential femme enfant.

Just 17, Marie-Therese Walter had never heard of the artist. Picasso, 30 years her senior, escorted her to a nearby bookstore to show her publications containing his photograph. Two days later, he took her to a movie.

She became his mistress and muse. On Jan. 24, 1932, Picasso painted “The Dream,” showing Walter enthroned in an armchair in the transition between consciousness and sleep. Picasso meant the painting to celebrate their love and happiness.

On Aug. 30, 1941, Ganz bought the painting for $7,000. It was the start of his love affair with the artist’s work. At one point, the Ganzes assembled what may have been the most important Picasso collection in private hands in the United States.

In the 1960s, the Ganzes started to collect works by Johns, Rauschenberg, Stella and Hesse, and the couple’s interest greatly benefited their careers.

Such was the relationship between Ganz and Johns that when a water leak from the apartment above damaged several of the artist’s prints, Johns said he would see what he could do.

Johns took the prints to his studio and repaired them by drawing over the damage. The result: Two unique works.

Ganz phoned to say thank you. Johns asked what he was doing home in the middle of the day.

“Oh, nothing,” Ganz joked. “I’m just pouring water on all the Johns prints in the house.”

After his retirement, Ganz devoted his energy full-time to art. He was a trustee of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art--the only active trustee to serve on all its acquisition committees--and was its vice president when he died in 1987. Sally Ganz, a founding member of the Public Education Assn., which helps students learn to read, died last January.

Two days before Victor Ganz’s death, his wife and their son, Tony, sat at his bedside as he appeared to be sleeping. Suddenly, he opened his eyes.

“The art isn’t mine anymore,” Ganz said, feeling his life and his passion, fading away.