Christie’s 236

Art stories to feed the mind and soul



From one of the most debated series of modern times: Willem de Kooning’s Woman (Green)



Why this 2,500-year-old wine cup is set to eclipse an auction record set two decades ago


‘
‘She’s an incredible role model’: heiress Aerin Lauder on the style and taste of Jayne Wrightsman



How John Minton, the life and soul of Soho, found solace and inspiration in rural Cornwall



Abby and George O’Neill, torchbearers for the Rockefeller tradition of collecting and giving



Cy Twombly’s cryptic response to the Apollo 11 space mission from his base in the Tuscan hills


More stories

Editor’s picks





Thought to have been manufactured in 1898, this Steinway & Sons grand pianowas sent to Paris for decoration in the style of Louis XV and designated ‘Fancy with paintings, all gilt, richly carved’. The paintings, including muses emblematic of Arts and Music on the sides, and a scene of Venus at Vulcan’s Forge on the lid, were executed by Lucien Simonnet

Estimate: $50,000-100,000
until 8 October, Online






Irving Penn captured model Jean Patchett entirely off guard for Café in Lima, published in Vogue in 1949. ‘One day we found this little café,’ she later recalled. ‘There was a young man sitting across from me... I picked up my pearls and kicked off my shoes. My feet were hurting. And he said “Stop!’’’

Estimate: $80,000-120,000
until 30 September, Online






This 4cm-high emerald-green glass snuff bottle belonged to a series made for distribution by the Qing emperors as gifts to officials, scholars and military figures. The faceting arose from the influence of Kilian Stumpf, a Jesuit missionary from Bavaria who established the imperial glassworks in 1696

Estimate: HKD16,000-30,000
8 October, Hong Kong






Alfred Munnings painted this portrait of the Aga Khan’s horse, Mahmoud IV, after it had won the Epsom Derby of 1936 in record-breaking style. Mahmoud was sold to businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, and became a highly successful breeding stallion in America. The horse died in 1962, and is buried in an equine cemetery in Kentucky

Estimate: €200,000-300,000
1 October, Paris










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Willem de Kooning in his studio, 1953 (detail). Photo: © Tony Vaccaro / Bridgeman Images. Artwork: © 2020 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) Woman (Green), 1953-55. Offered in 20th Century Evening Sale on 6 October at Christie’s in New York / DACS, London 2020 // John Minton, 1951. Photo: © Estate of Russell Westwood / National Portrait Gallery, London. Artwork: © Estate of John Minton // Cy Twombly (1928-2011), Untitled [Bolsena], 1969. Estimate: $35-45 million. Offered in 20th Century Evening Sale on 6 October 2020 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Cy Twombly Foundation