Friday

$10m Art Sale From Lehman Brothers

The Guardian reports that 'art collectors will get another chance to snap up remnants from the office walls of the world's most notorious failed bank in an auction by Sotheby's in September of over 400 art items from Lehman Brothers' once renowned hoard, including work by Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter and Félix González-Torres, following a smaller sale from the company's collection last October. Liquidators to the defunct Wall Street firm announced today that a large slice of Lehman's collection will go under the hammer in September in an auction expected to raise $10m (£6.89m). The proceeds will go to creditors who are still owed billions of dollars following the bank's spectacular collapse in September 2008. Kelly Wright, an adviser to Lehman's estate, described the lots as a "visionary" collection: "Many of the works were acquired from cutting-edge and emergent artists who have since evolved into the vanguards of the contemporary art world." Lehman inherited a significant chunk of the collection when it bought a US asset management firm, Neuberger Berman, in 2003. Neuberger's founder, Roy Neuberger, had been an enthusiastic corporate acquirer of art and Lehman subsequently built on his stockpile. An early Damien Hirst wall piece called We've Got Style (The Vessel Collection – Blue) ( is set to be the biggest seller with an estimated price tag of $800,000 to $1.2m. A cabinet full of ceramic objects, the piece was produced before Hirst's art hit the headlines when work such as his shark preserved in formaldehyde attracted record multimillion-pound prices. Other valuable items in the auction include The Long Way Home by China's Liu Ye, a 1992 abstract painting by Gerhard Richter and John Currin's portrait Shakespeare Actress which is set to fetch $500,000 to $700,000. The Sotheby's sale is the second major batch of Lehman works to be sold – an earlier, less valuable, collection of contemporary art including work by David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein was auctioned off in Philadelphia seven months ago, raising $1.35m'. For full source and full article click the Headline. Irish Art