{"id":411627,"date":"2025-09-09T23:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411627\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T23:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:12:15","slug":"elaine-wynns-francis-bacon-heads-to-lacma-20-works-go-to-christies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/411627\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine Wynn\u2019s Francis Bacon Heads to LACMA, 20 Works Go to Christie\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe estate of top collector and casino magnate Elaine Wynn<\/a>, who died this past April<\/a>, has made decisions about the future of famed art holdings, with several works heading to auction in November and one heading to a museum next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tWynn appeared on ARTnews\u2019s annual Top 200 Collectors list several times, both individually and with her former husband Steve Wynn. She was known for her blue-chip collection that included major names from the 19th century onward, including Pablo Picasso, \u00c9douard Manet, Joan Mitchell, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NEW<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mother celebrated every piece that she collected,\u201d Gillian Wynn, one of her two daughters, said in a statement. \u201cShe felt privileged to live with each and every one, but always understood that she was merely a temporary custodian. Good art moves and provokes us and then must live on to do the same for others.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art<\/a>, where Wynn was board cochair from 2015 until her death, will receive Francis Bacon\u2019s Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), for which Wynn paid $142.2 million at a Christie\u2019s auction in 2013. At the time, the painting broke the record for the most expensive artwork to ever sell at auction.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is the first Bacon work to enter LACMA\u2019s collection, and it will go view as part of the opening of LACMA\u2019s forthcoming new building, called the David Geffen Galleries, when it opens next year. Wynn previously donated $50 million to the capital campaign to fund the Peter Zumthor\u2013designed structure.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, LACMA director Michael Govan said, \u201cElaine was among the most generous and supportive leaders in LACMA\u2019s entire history. She was our biggest champion, and was as passionate about accessibility to art as she was about works of art. Thanks to Elaine\u2019s incredible generosity, Bacon\u2019s masterpiece will belong to LACMA and the public.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFrancis Bacon, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, 1969. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9The Estate of Francis Bacon\/Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Elaine P. Wynn<\/p>\n

\n\tChristie\u2019s also announced that it will sell 20 works from Wynn\u2019s collection as part of \u201cElaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn,\u201d which will be spread across three sales during the house\u2019s marquee fall sales in New York. Nine will feature in 20th-century evening sale, two in the 21st-century evening sale, and nine in postwar and contemporary day sale. The lots are expected to achieve at least $75 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the highlights from Wynn\u2019s collection, which once hung in her Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York residences, are Richard Diebenkorn\u2019s Ocean Park #40 (1971) and Lucian Freud\u2019s The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer (2004\u201305), both of which are expected to sell for between $15 million and $25 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, Christie\u2019s will sell Joan Mitchell\u2019s 1969 Sunflower V (carrying an estimate of $12 million\u2013$18 million), J.M.W. Turner\u2019s Ehrenbreitstein, or The Bright Stone of Honour and the Tomb of Marceau, from Byron\u2019s Childe Harold ($12 million\u2013$18 million), Fernand L\u00e9ger\u2019s 1921 Les Confidences (Les deux femmes au bouquet) ($6 million\u2013$8 million), and Wayne Thiebaud\u2019s 2000 painting River Stretch ($3 million\u2013$5 million). The Turner work is the oldest one to be offered as part of the sale, having been first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1835.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJ.M.W. Turner\u2019s Ehrenbreitstein, or The Bright Stone of Honour and the Tomb of Marceau, from Byron\u2019s Childe Harold, which was first exhibited in 1835, is expected to sell for between $12 million and $18 million.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Christie\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cElaine Wynn\u2019s collecting was guided by the same curiosity, passion and style that marked her profound legacies in business and philanthropy,\u201d Max Carter, Christie\u2019s vice chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art, said in statement. \u201cHer interests spanned over 150 years, from Turner\u2019s poetic masterpiece, Ehrenbreitstein, to Freud\u2019s culminant self-portrait; from Seurat\u2019s exquisite Parisian view to perhaps Richard Diebenkorn\u2019s most beautiful Ocean Park #40; from Joan Mitchell\u2019s breathtaking Sunflower V to Olga de Amaral. Ms. Wynn was one-of-a-kind and we could not be more honored to work with her family and to celebrate her collection and example this fall at Christie\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe collection is the second and, so far, the most high-profile one announced for sale in New York this fall amid a shaky international art market. About a week ago, Christie\u2019s announced<\/a> that it had also secured the collection of Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross Weis, which comprises 80 lots and has a valuation of $180 million. In contrast to Wynn, Weis, the former chairman of Weis Markets, was more private about his collecting; most of the works to be offered were rarely loaned to museums.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRichard Diebenkorn\u2019s Ocean Park #40 (1971) is expected to sell for between $15 million and $25 million.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Christie\u2019s<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral of Wynn\u2019s works are being offered at prices below what the collector originally paid for them, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported<\/a> the news. She paid $23.9 million for the Turner in 2017 and $27.3 million for the Diebenkorn, which Wynn purchased from Anne Marion\u2019s single-owner sale at Sotheby\u2019s in 2021. Additionally, a 2010 Adrian Ghenie will also be part of the upcoming Christie\u2019s sale; Wynn paid $6.3 million for it in 2018, and it now carries a low estimate of $2.5 million. On the other hand, Wynn acquired the Mitchell painting in 2005 for $1.5 million, with its low estimate being eight times that figure.<\/p>\n

\n\tKevyn Wynn, Elaine\u2019s daughter, added in a statement, \u201cOur mother lived a life filled with passion, conviction and grace. She had uncompromising standards and we have every confidence that Christie\u2019s will uphold her vision and legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The estate of top collector and casino magnate Elaine Wynn, who died this past April, has made decisions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[52324,4021,4020,18846,4022,141572,77,115668,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-411627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-artnews-top-200-collectors","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-christies","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-elaine-wynn","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-los-angeles-county-museum-of-art","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115176875475972501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}