Marian Goodman Collection To Lead Christie's May Sales

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Marian Goodman's Richter holdings head to Christie's with an estimate up to $65 million

A major private collection assembled by one of contemporary art's most influential dealers is about to enter the market. Christie's will offer works from the personal collection of Marian Goodman, who died in January at 97, during its May marquee sales in New York. The group is expected to bring about $65 million, led by seven paintings by German artist Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), including one work estimated as high as $50 million.

At the center of the offering is“Kerze (Candle)” from 1982, one of Richter's most recognizable motifs. Christie's has placed a pre-sale estimate of $35 million to $50 million on the painting, which will be presented at the start of the 21st Century Evening Sale on May 20. The Richter group spans works made between 1982 and 2009 and reflects the depth of Goodman's long relationship with the artist.

Goodman began representing Richter in 1985, when his market in the United States was still relatively underdeveloped. Over the following decades, she placed his work with major institutions while retaining key examples for herself, a strategy that helped shape his reception and support price stability on both sides of the Atlantic. Richter's departure from the gallery in 2022, when he joined David Zwirner, marked the end of a long professional alliance.

The market context is favorable. Even as demand for postwar painting has softened at the top end, Richter's work has remained resilient, especially when rare examples surface at auction. His 1986“Abstraktes Bild” sold for $46.3 million at Sotheby's London in 2015, then a record for a living European artist. Large-scale abstractions from the 1990s have also continued to draw strong bidding when they appear.

Additional works from Goodman's collection will be divided between a day sale and an online auction. Christie's said the material comes from Goodman's family and excludes artists currently represented by the gallery.

The sale also underscores the discipline that defined Goodman's career. She opened her gallery in 1977 with a show of Marcel Broodthaers and went on to back artists including Lothar Baumgarten, Giuseppe Penone, Julie Mehretu, and William Kentridge with unusual consistency. In an art market often shaped by rapid turnover, her collection now reads as a record of long conviction - and a reminder that restraint can be as consequential as acquisition.

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