With The Devil Wears Prada 2 back in cinemas, Anna Wintour is back in the spotlight – but her real-world story has long been tied to one of the most powerful figures in media and collecting: S.I. Newhouse.

As head of Condé Nast, Newhouse oversaw the empire behind Vogue and built one of the world’s most significant art collections. This New York auction season, Christie’s offered 16 works from that collection – all of which sold on 18 May for a staggering US$630 million.

The single-owner sale was led by two nine-figure trophies: Constantin Brancusi’s Danaïde, which fetched US$107.6 million, and Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948, which sold for US$181.2 million.

The Brancusi made the Romanian modernist only the second sculptor to cross US$100 million at auction, and set the second‑highest price ever achieved for a sculpture. The Pollock, meanwhile, reset the artist’s auction record and became the fourth‑most‑expensive painting ever sold at auction.

Three works – by Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse, and Roy Lichtenstein – appear to have been acquired by buyers from mainland China or Hong Kong.

Note: This article focuses on Brancusi’s Danaïde. For Pollock’s record-breaking drip painting, see our separate report: Jackson Pollock drip painting sells for US$181m, becoming fourth most expensive artwork at auction

Actress Nicole Kidman featured in Christie’s promotional video of Danaïde

Lot 4 A | Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) | Danaïde, bronze with gold leaf and black patina (Auction record for the artist and second most expensive sculpture in auction history)
Conceived and cast circa 1913
Height: 27.1 cm
Provenance (Supplemented by The Value):

• Eugene and Agnes Meyer, Washington, D.C. and Mount Kisco, New York (acquired from the artist, April 1914, then by descent); sale, Christie's, New York, 7 May 2002, lot 27 (Sold: US$18,159,500, world auction record for any sculpture at the time of sale)
• Acquired at the above sale by the late owner

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate on request (Expected to fetch in the region of US$100 million)
Hammer Price: US$93,000,000
Sold: US$107,585,000

Only six metal versions of Brancusi's celebrated Danaïde are known. Of these, just two are gilded: this work and the cast in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, making the Newhouse cast the only gilded example still in private hands. When it first appeared at auction in 2002, it set a record for any sculpture sold at auction. 

Returning to the block with expectations of more than US$100 million, the work opened at US$82 million. Bidding came from a bidder in the room and a client on the phone with Maria Los, Christie’s Deputy Chairman and Head of Client Advisory, Americas. Los’s client, bidding with paddle 7093, eventually won the lot at US$93 million hammer, or US$107.6 million with fees.

Adrien Meyer brought the hammer down at US$93 million

Maria Los won the lot for her client, paddle 7093

Only three other sculptures have ever passed the US$100 million mark at public auction, all by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. With Danaïde, Brancusi becomes only the second sculptor to reach that level:
 

• Alberto Giacometti, Pointing Man | Sold: US$141.3 million, Christie’s New York, 2015
• Constantin Brancusi, Danaïde | Sold: US$107.6 million, Christie’s New York, 2026
• Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man I Sold: US$104.3 million, Sotheby’s London, 2010
• Alberto Giacometti, Chariot | Sold: US$101 million, Sotheby’s New York, 2014
   

Brancusi’s previous auction record was set in 2018, when La Jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) realised US$71.18 million at Christie’s New York. 

Alberto Giacometti | Pointing Man | Sold: US$141.3 million, Christie’s New York, 2015

Constantin Brancusi | La Jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) | Sold: US$71.2 million, Christie’s New York, 2018

For any young sculptor in the early 20th century, a place in Auguste Rodin’s studio would have been a dream. Rodin was already hailed as the father of modern sculpture. Brancusi, however, stayed for only a month.

His reason became famous: “Nothing grows under big trees.” The Romanian artist understood that if he stayed too long under Rodin’s shadow, he might never find a language of his own.

Constantin Brancusi

Born in 1876 into a poor farming family in rural Romania, Brancusi showed an early gift for woodwork. At eighteen he fashioned a playable violin from scraps of wood he had gathered himself. The feat impressed a local industrialist, who helped fund his education and opened the way for him to study sculpture formally.

A decade later, Brancusi set his sights on Paris. With almost no money, he travelled much of the 2,300‑kilometre journey on foot, sleeping where he could and taking work along the way. By the time he reached northern France he was exhausted and ill, and a friend sent money so he could complete the journey by train.

Once in Paris, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts before joining Rodin’s studio, where he transferred the master’s compositions from clay into marble.

At the time, academic sculpture was still built around ideals of perfection. Its subjects tended to be noble figures from mythology or history, arranged in graceful poses and finished with polished surfaces.

Rodin had already challenged that tradition. His figures could appear fearful, anguished, uncertain, even physically distorted; their rough surfaces carried the marks of the artist’s hand. Instead of divine images, he created sculptures that felt startlingly human.

Rather than making sculpture even more lifelike, Brancusi stripped it back to its essentials, reducing the human figure to clean volumes, polished surfaces, and fluid curves.

“It is not the outward form which is real, it is the essence of things,” he once said. “On this basis, it is impossible for anyone to express anything real by imitating surface appearances.” This approach would help open sculpture to abstraction and make Brancusi a pioneer of modernism.

Auguste Rodin | Danaid | Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Created around 1913, Danaïde takes its imagery from Greek mythology, a theme Rodin also explored. 

As the story goes, the 50 daughters of King Danaos were ordered to marry the 50 sons of his brother Aegyptos. On their wedding night, Danaos commanded his daughters to kill their husbands. All but one obeyed. For their crime, the Danaïdes were sent to Hades and condemned to an endless punishment: filling jars that could never hold water.

Brancusi’s inspiration came from a real model, Margit Pogany, a Hungarian art student who became one of his key muses. Struck by her appearance when they first met, he carved a marble Danaïde from memory.

Pogany later offered to sit for him, allowing Brancusi to study her features more closely in clay. Her delicate face, wide almond‑shaped eyes, and neatly arranged low bun would appear on Danaïde and, later, the celebrated Mademoiselle Pogany series.

Margit Pogany

Constantin Brancusi | Mademoiselle Pogany | Collection of The Museum of Modern Art

During his years in Paris, Brancusi was a regular visitor to the city’s museums. He looked closely at sculpture from Africa and Oceania, as well as ancient Asian and Aegean art.

In Danaïde, Brancusi covered the face with gold leaf and treated the hair with a dark patina, creating a striking contrast of gold and black. The effect recalls gilded Buddhist figures from the Himalayas and East Asia, the kind he could have encountered at the Musée Guimet, one of Europe’s leading museums of Asian art.

It is one of only two examples remaining in private hands; the others are held by Tate, London; the Kunst Museum Winterthur; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and another private collection. 

From left to right and top to bottom: the present work; Centre Pompidou; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kunst Museum Winterthur, Switzerland; another private collection; Tate, London

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Christie’s had previously offered works from S.I. Newhouse’s collection in New York in 2018, 2019, and 2023. Among the highlights was Jeff Koons’s stainless-steel Rabbit, which sold for US$91.1 million and set an auction record for a living artist that still stands today. 

With this latest sale, Christie’s four Newhouse auctions have brought in US$1.05 billion. That makes Newhouse the second private collection in auction history to cross the US$1 billion mark, after that of Paul Allen, which totalled around US$1.7 billion.

Beyond the headline prices for Brancusi and Pollock, the sale produced several other notable results. Joan Miró’s Portrait de Madame K. sold for US$53.35 million, setting a new auction record for the artist, his first since 2001.

Lot 8 A | Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) | Number 7A, 1948, oil and enamel on canvas (Auction record for the artist; fourth-most expensive painting sold at auction)
Painted in 1948
88.9 x 334 cm
Provenance:

• Herbert Matter, New York (gift from the artist, circa 1949)
• Harold Diamond, Inc., New York (on consignment from the above)
• John and Kimiko Powers, New York (acquired from the above, 23 May 1967)
• Alfred Taubman, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (acquired from the above, May 1980)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 20 October 2000

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate on request (Expected to fetch in the region of US$100 million)
Hammer Price: US$157,000,000
Sold: US$181,185,000

Lot 6 A | Joan Miró (1893-1983) | Portrait de Madame K., oil, charcoal and colored wax crayons on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Executed in Paris in 1924
116.7 x 90.7 cm
Provenance:

• Max Ernst, Paris
• René and Jeanne Gaffé, Paris and Cagnes-sur-Mer (acquired from the above, 14 August 1926); Estate sale, Christie’s, New York, 6 November 2001, lot 14 (world auction record for the artist at the time of sale)
• Acquired at the above sale by the late owner

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Hammer Price: US$46,000,000
Sold: US$53,535,000

Bidding from Asia also appeared to be active. Three works, totalling nearly US$80 million, were bought through Christie’s China and Hong Kong phone desks, suggesting possible mainland Chinese or Hong Kong buyers.
 

• Piet Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black, and Yellow | US$39.74 million, via Mia Zhang, Senior Client Service Officer, China
• Henri Matisse, Robe noire et robe violette | US$34.56 million, via Rebecca Yang, Chairman, China
• Roy Lichtenstein, Voodoo Lily | US$5.57 million, via Ada Tsui, Head of 20th/21st Century Art, Asia Pacific
   

Lot 5 A | Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) | Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow, oil on canvas in the artist's painted frame
Painted in 1921
52 x 42.3 cm
Provenance:

• Léonce Rosenberg, Paris (gift from the artist, 1922, until circa 1934)
• James Johnson Sweeney, New York (1934, then by descent)
• Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (acquired from the above, 2000)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 7 January 2000

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$35,000,000 - 55,000,000
Hammer Price: US$34,000,000
Sold: US$39,735,000

Lot 7 A | Henri Matisse (1869-1954) | Robe noire et robe violette, oil on canvas
Painted in Nice 16 April-11 May 1938
72.8 x 60.1 cm
Provenance:

• Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris and New York (acquired from the artist, 1938)
• Edward and Katharine Bennett, Jr., Lake Forest, Illinois (acquired from the above, 6 March 1941); sale, Christie’s, New York, 7 November 1995, lot 48
• Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired at the above sale)
• Private collection (acquired from the above, 7 March 1997)
• Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above, 2000)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 21 December 2004

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$30,000,000 - 50,000,000
Hammer Price: US$29,500,000
Sold: US$34,560,000

 

Lot 15 A | Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) | Voodoo Lily, oil on canvas
Painted in 1961
81.6 x 50.8 cm
Provenance:

• Dolph and Beatrice Bernardi, New York (gift from the artist)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Private collection, Greenwich (acquired from the above, 1989)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, April 1996

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$4,500,000
Sold: US$5,565,000

Another bidder in the room, holding paddle number 123, spent a combined US$60.16 million on four works:

• Andy Warhol, Do It Yourself (Violin) | US$25.94 million
• Pablo Picasso, La femme enceinte, 1er état | US$22.49 million
• Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait I (after the Life Mask of William Blake) | US$5.93 million
• Jasper Johns, Alley Oop | US$5.81 million
   

Lot 16 A | Andy Warhol (1928-1987) | Do It Yourself (Violin), acrylic, graphite, Letraset and crayon on linen
Executed in 1962
137.2 x 182.9 cm
Provenance:

• Stable Gallery, New York
• Burton and Emily Tremaine, Meriden, Connecticut (acquired from the above, 17 October 1962)
• Harold Diamond, Inc., New York (acquired from the above, February 1980)
• Private collection (acquired from the above, February 1980)
• Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Zurich (acquired from the above, by 2000)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 23 October 2000

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer Price: US$22,000,000
Sold: US$25,935,000

Lot 9 A | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | La femme enceinte, 1er état, bronze with brown patina
Conceived in 1950; this bronze version cast circa 1951-1953
Height: 104.7 cm
Provenance:

• Galerie Louise Leiris (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York (acquired from the above with funds gifted by Louise Reinhardt Smith, 1956)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (acquired from the above, December 2003)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 14 October 2005

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$18,000,000 - 25,000,000
Hammer Price: US$19,000,000
Sold: US$22,485,000

Lot 10 A | Francis Bacon (1909-1992) | Study for Portrait I (after the Life Mask of William Blake), oil on canvas
Painted in 1955
61 x 51.1 cm
Provenance:

• Gerard Schurmann, Henley-on-Thames (gift from the artist)
• The artist
• Hanover Gallery, London (acquired from the above, 1 February 1955)
• Durlacher Bros., New York (acquired from the above, 4 July 1955)
• World House Gallery, New York (1959)
• James Dewey and Mary Elizabeth Bisgard, Omaha (by 1962)
• Acquired by the late owner, by August 2007

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: US$4,800,000
Sold: US$5,931,000

Lot 14 A | Jasper Johns (b. 1930) | Alley Oop, oil and printed paper collage on cardboard mounted on Masonite
Executed in 1958
59.1 x 45.7 cm
Provenance:

• Robert Rauschenberg, New York and Captiva, Florida (gift from the artist, 1958)
• Gagosian, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 13 October 1988

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$4,700,000
Sold: US$5,809,000

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S.I. Newhouse and Anna Wintour

S.I. Newhouse (1927-2017) and Other Highlight Lots

Samuel Irving “S.I.” Newhouse Jr. was born in New York in 1927, the son of S.I. Newhouse Sr., who founded Advance Publications in the 1920s and built it into one of America’s great private media empires. After their father’s death, S.I. Newhouse Jr. and his brother Donald divided the business between them: Donald oversaw newspapers and cable television, while Newhouse Jr. took charge of Condé Nast.

At Condé Nast, Newhouse shaped The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ into prestige titles, spending lavishly on talent and image. One of his most consequential decisions was appointing Anna Wintour editor-in-chief of Vogue. He died in 2017 with an estimated fortune of US$12.1 billion. 

Newhouse’s collection was anchored in post‑war American art. Vanity Fair editor‑in‑chief Graydon Carter recalls David Geffen once walking Newhouse through one of his houses and pausing at a rectangular Jackson Pollock hung vertically in the breakfast nook. Newhouse studied it for a moment and asked where Geffen had got it. “I bought it from you, Si,” came the reply – at which point Newhouse realised that, when he owned it, he had hung the painting horizontally.

Newhouse also owned Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which sold for US$195 million in 2022, the second‑highest price ever achieved for a painting. He later added Picasso and Cézanne, as well as School of London painters, including Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. According to his adviser Tobias Meyer, the only giant who never interested him was Gerhard Richter.

Lot 2 A | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | Tête de femme (Fernande), bronze with dark brown patina
Conceived in 1909
Height: 40.8 cm
Provenance:

• (probably) Ambroise Vollard, Paris
• René and Jeanne Gaffé, Paris and Cagnes-sur-Mer (by 1960); Estate sale, Christie’s, New York, 6 November 2001, lot 7 (auction record for a sculpture by the artist at the time of sale)
• Private collection (acquired at the above sale)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 10 February 2004

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$40,000,000 - 60,000,000
Hammer Price: US$41,500,000
Sold: US$48,360,000

Lot 3 A | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | Homme à la guitare, oil, encaustic and sand on canvas
Painted in Céret in 1913
130.5 x 89.6 cm
Provenance:

• Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris (acquired from the artist)
• Gertrude Stein, Paris (acquired from the above, 17 October 1913)
• Syndicate of The Museum of Modern Art, New York (acquired from the estate of the above, 1968)
• André Meyer, New York (acquired from the above, 14 December 1968)
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift from the above, 11 March 1980)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (acquired from the above, 2000)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 9 May 2000

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$35,000,000 - 55,000,000
Hammer Price: US$35,000,000
Sold: US$40,885,000

Lot 13 A | Jasper Johns (b. 1930) | Gray Target, encaustic on canvas
Painted in 1958
106.7 x 106.7 cm
Provenance:

• Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
• Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, Paris (acquired from the above, January 1960)
• Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 10 February 1998

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer Price: US$24,500,000
Sold: US$28,810,000

Lot 1 A | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | Tête de femme, oil on card laid down on canvas
Painted in Paris in 1907
35.1 x 27.1 cm
Provenance:

• Paul Eluard, Paris
• René Gaffé, Brussels (acquired from the above, circa 1930)
• Roland Penrose, London (acquired from the above, 24 July 1937, until at least 1942)
• E.L.T. Mesens, London (acquired from the above)
• Gordon Onslow Ford, El Molino, Mexico
• Himan Brown, New York (circa 1946, until at least 1990)
• Acquired by the late owner, 25 August 2004

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$12,000,000
Sold: US$14,435,000

Lot 12 A | Jasper Johns (b. 1930 ) | Figure 2, encaustic, canvas and printed paper collage on canvas
Executed in 1955
43.8 x 35.6 cm
Provenance:

• Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
• Donald H. and Harriet Peters, New York (acquired from the above, 1957)
• Harriet Peters, New York (by descent from the above, 1960)
• Harold Diamond, Inc., New York (on consignment from the above)
• Harris B. Steinberg, New York (acquired from the above, 1963); sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 4 March 1970, lot 48
• Peter M. Brant, Greenwich (acquired at the above sale)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 12 February 1997

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Hammer Price: US$7,200,000
Sold: US$8,859,000

Lot 11 A | Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) | Levee, oil, paper collage, printed paper collage, fabric and necktie on canvas laid down on Masonite, in artist's strip frame
Executed in 1955
142.8 x 110 cm
Provenance:

• Lois Long, New York (by 1967)
• Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• François de Menil, New York (acquired from the above, 1979)
• Gagosian Gallery, New York (on consignment from the above)
• Acquired from the above by the late owner, 2002

Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: US$7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Hammer Price: US$5,800,000
Sold: US$7,151,000

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Auction Details:

Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse
Date: 18 May 2026
Number of Lots: 16
Sold: 16
Sale Rate: 100%
Sale Total: US$630,825,000