Sotheby's Private Auction Of Arne Glimcher's Jackson Pollock Appears To Fail

Sotheby's quietly attempted to sell a major Jackson Pollock painting in a private auction this week, only to abandon the effort after failing to attract enough bidders, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The work, Number 19, 1951, is owned by Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher, and the reported asking price was $50 million.

The sale was handled with unusual discretion. Oliver Barker, Sotheby's chairman for Europe and one of the house's best-known auctioneers, was flown in from London to conduct it. Yet the auction never gained traction. One source said the house could not assemble sufficient interest to move forward, and it remains unclear whether the painting was returned to Glimcher, sold privately, or is still with Sotheby's.

The episode is notable not only for the painting itself, but for the format. Private auctions have become an increasingly important tool for high-value works that owners prefer not to expose to the public theater of an evening sale. Christie's has developed the model more aggressively since the pandemic, using it for what its global president, Alex Rotter, has described as works reserved for the highest-quality and highest-priced tier.

Number 19, 1951 has long been visible in the art-historical record. It was included in the Museum of Modern Art's landmark Pollock retrospective in 1999 and later appeared in Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, which opened at Tate Liverpool in 2015 before traveling to the Dallas Museum of Art. The work's exhibition history underscores how a painting can be both institutionally validated and still difficult to place at the top end of the market.

The timing also sharpened the contrast. Just three weeks earlier, another Pollock sold at Christie's New York for $181.2 million, setting a record for the artist at auction. Against that backdrop, the reported $50 million asking price for Number 19, 1951 may have looked ambitious. The failed attempt arrives as Pace Gallery itself is recalibrating: Marc Glimcher, Arne's son and the gallery's chief executive, recently outlined plans to cut staff by roughly 20 percent and reduce the roster of artists by nearly a third.

For the market, the episode suggests that even a Pollock with museum pedigree can meet resistance when pricing, timing, and buyer appetite fail to align.

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