Joe Lewis’s Art Poised to Give London $254M Boost

Five of the top six lots heading to auction this month come from the Lewis Family Collection, which has already made history. The modern masters consigned by the billionaire Joe Lewis make it the most valuable single-collection sale ever offered by an auction house in London, and Europe.

The Lewis sale is poised to fetch north of $254.6m at Sotheby's on June 24.

Ten years after the UK voted for Brexit—and despite the added admin and logistical costs of leaving the EU—London still looks secure in its position as the world’s second-largest market for such a big-ticket sale, behind only New York.

The landmark sale is led by Modigliani's Nu assis au collier (1917), which caused a scandal in Paris when first unveiled and has a low estimate of $60.2m. Other star lots include Lewis's: Lucian Freud's, Sleeping by the Lion Carpet (1995–6); estimated at $33.4m, a $26.7m Klimt; a second Modigliani, Homme à la pipe (Le Notaire de Nice) (1918), estimated at $16m, and Picasso's Buste de femme (1938) also estimated at $16m. Lewis's Francis Bacon has an estimate of $10.7m.

Additional lots from the Lewis Collection include works by Gustave Caillebotte, Magritte, and Max Beckmann. Each of these carries low estimates ranging from $4m to $4.6m.

Sotheby's evening auctions are not all about the Lewis consignment, however. Also on offer is a Monet waterlilies painting, Nymphéas (1907), which has a low estimate of $40.1m.

Other notable works include another Monet estimated at $9.3m, a Rothko at $5.3m, and a Kandinsky also estimated at $5.3m.

While post-Brexit Sotheby's has continued to hold a big auction in London in June, rival Christie's shows little inclination to resume its major sales in the British capital before collectors head off for their summer holidays.

At Christie's in London this June, Philip Guston's Mirror Head (1977), which has a $4.68m low estimate, is the highest-value lot in its sale of works from Anita and Poju Zabludowicz's collection on June 25.

Its Post-War to Present auction on the same evening is led by Cecily Brown's The Hunter (2010), which has a $2.94m estimate.