Joe Lewis Sale Turns Up the Heat in London
3 min read · 26 Jun 2026
Modigliani's Nu assis au collier (1917), sold for $63.91m with fees. It last sold at auction in 1995 for $12.43m at Christie's New York.
London came up trumps this week. At Sotheby’s, the $392.6m sale of modern masterworks from billionaire Joe Lewis’s collection set a new benchmark for single-collection auctions in Europe. It also matched some of New York’s most significant recent big-name sales.
On the HENI Auction Index, the Lewis family collection evening sale on June 24 scored a B+. And that does not include the 23 works consigned to Sotheby’s sale the following day, which was led by Picasso portrait of Dora Maar.
Sotheby's Lewis collection sale scored a B+ on the HENI Auction, ahead of the Len Riggio and S.I. Newhouse sales in New York.
Lewis’s index score was higher than those of the late billionaires Len Riggio and S.I. Newhouse's sales in May 2025 and May 2026 at Christie’s New York, which both scored C-.
The only disappointment of the night was Edgar Degas’s La Loge (1880), which had a $4.02m low estimate and failed to find a buyer. Many other works soared, not least Lewis’s Modigliani nude, which sold for $63.9m with fees, delivering the businessman and his family a 5% annualised return.
Although the sale of 25 works was only about a third of the typical size of a blue-chip single-collection auction, Lewis generated nearly four times the usual value, with paintings by Klimt, Picasso, Magritte, plus a Degas sculpture of a little dancer, all selling for more than their high estimates.
The HENI Auction Index is based on more than ten metrics to assess auction performance beyond its total or sell-through rate.
The share of lots hammering above low and high estimates was notably stronger than in a typical single-collection sale—up 7.6 percentage points on the high estimate.
That said, the average hammer-to-mid-estimate ratio fell 20% short of the typical level.
Unusually for such a sale, none of the lots were guaranteed or had irrevocable bids.
The average number of bidders for Lewis’s works was a remarkable 4.2 per lot—one bidder more than usual.
The Degas that did not sell meant that only 4% of lots were bought in, and none were withdrawn.
It was a night to remember for the 89-year-old Londoner, who left school at 15 and went on to spend his fortune on art, a superyacht and a soccer club. It was also a memorable night for London.
Despite only around a third of the usual number of lots, the Lewis evening sale generated nearly four times the typical value.
The percentages of lots hammering above the low and high estimates were significantly higher than in a typical collection sale.
The average number of bidders achieved a remarkable 4.2 per lot, which is one bidder more than usual.
A single unsold Degas meant that only 4% of lots were bought in, and none were withdrawn.
Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here
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