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: Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948, which sold for US$181.2 million, and Constantin Brancusi’s Danaïde, which fetched US$107.6 million.
The Pollock reset the artist’s auction record and became the fourth‑most‑expensive painting ever sold at auction. The Brancusi, meanwhile, 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.
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 Pollock's Number 7A, 1948. For Brancusi’s Danaïde, see separate report: Brancusi’s 'Danaïde' becomes the second most expensive sculpture ever, fetching US$108m at Christie’s New York.
Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 was hammered at US$157 million, selling for US$181 million with fees
Lot 8 A | Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) | Number 7A, 1948, oil and enamel on canvas | Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse (Auction record for the artist)
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
One of the central figures of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock is best known for the drip paintings he made in the late 1940s. Of the 29 large-scale drip paintings by Pollock, only three are still in private hands. Measuring 88.9 x 334 cm, Number 7A, 1948 is the largest of them, and has rarely been seen in public since it was made.
Bidding opened at US$82 million. Once the price reached around US$100 million, it turned into a two‑way contest between a client on the phone with Alex Rotter, Christie’s global president, and a bidder in the room. Neither was willing to back down, trading near‑instant bids in steady US$1 million increments.
At US$153 million, auctioneer Adrien Meyer was about to knock the work down to Rotter’s client when a new bidder on the phones jumped in at the last moment, hoping to steal the lot. But Rotter’s client, bidding with paddle 1889, held firm and secured the painting for a hammer price of US$157 million, or US$181 million with fees.
Pollock's previous auction high was US$61.2 million, set in 2021 when Number 17, 1951 sold at Sotheby’s New York. In 2015, entertainment mogul David Geffen reportedly sold Number 17A (112 x 86 cm) to Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin for about US$200 million in a private deal.
Two large-scale Pollock drip paintings in private hands
Number 17A | Reportedly sold to Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin for about US$200 million in a private deal
Alex Rotter won the lot for his client, paddle number 1889
Number 7A, 1948 is now the fourth‑most‑expensive painting ever sold at auction:
- Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi | Sold: US$450,312,500, Christie's New York, 2017
- Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer | Sold: US$236,360,000, Sotheby's New York, 2025
- Andy Warhol, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn | Sold: US$195,040,000, Christie's New York, 2022
- Jackson Pollock, Number 7A, 1948 | Sold: US$181,185,000, Christie's New York, 2026
- Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes d’Alger (Version "O") | Sold: US$179,365,000, Christie's New York, 2015
Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, in third place on the list, also once belonged to S.I. Newhouse before being consigned to a gallery in the 1980s.
Andy Warhol, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn | Sold: US$195,040,000, Christie's New York, 2022
Number 17, 1951 | Sold: US$61.2 million, Sotheby's New York, 2021
In the years after the Second World War, Abstract Expressionism made New York the new centre of the art world. Led by figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, the movement turned away from representation, using colour, line, and gesture to give form to emotion and subjective experience.
By the late 1940s, Pollock was working in a barn studio on Long Island, where many of his drip paintings were made. Instead of setting the canvas on an easel, he laid it flat on the floor, then used brushes, sticks, and other tools to drip, pour, and fling paint across the surface. As he moved around the work, the painting lost any fixed viewpoint or obvious centre.
As Pollock put it: “On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides, and literally be in the painting.” The result had the charge of performance, later giving rise to the idea of “action painting”.
Jackson Pollock
Close-up of the present lot
The radical language of Pollock’s drip paintings grew out of a broad mix of influences. His teacher Thomas Hart Benton left an early mark through his rhythmic compositions and mural scale, while Native American sand painting showed him images being made on the ground, through movement and ritual.
Mexican muralism was especially important. At David Alfaro Siqueiros’s experimental workshop in New York, Pollock encountered industrial paints and unorthodox methods such as spraying, pouring, and splattering. He later brought sand, ash, and shards of glass into his own paintings, giving their surfaces a rougher physical charge. Occasionally, even an insect caught in the wet paint remained there.
His method also carried affinities with the unconscious and with jazz improvisation. Working largely without preparatory sketches, Pollock relied on instinct, rhythm, and immediate judgment, producing paintings that appear spontaneous yet remain rigorously controlled.
Thomas Hart Benton, Achelous and Hercules | Collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum
Jackson Pollock, Blue Poles | Collection of the National Gallery of Australia
Native American sand painting
The drip paintings brought Pollock to the height of his career. By the early 1950s, he was widely regarded as the most important living American artist, with a reputation that reached well beyond the New York art scene.
Painted in 1948, Number 7A, 1948 belongs to the core years of Pollock’s drip period. Across its raw, unprimed canvas, looping black lines, pools of pigment, and fine skeins of paint form a restless field. Some marks are dense and anchoring; others are gossamer thin. Small flashes of red punctuate the surface, a device Pollock sometimes used to heighten contrast and drama.
Close-up of the present lot
Close-up of the present lot
After the drip paintings, Pollock entered his “black pourings” phase, making stark works in black enamel that found few buyers at the time. He also began to reintroduce figures, faces, and natural forms into his paintings, breaking with the pure abstraction that had made him famous.
His personal life was unravelling. Under mounting pressure, Pollock became increasingly volatile; his alcoholism deepened, and his affair with Ruth Kligman strained his marriage to Lee Krasner. Krasner left for Paris in 1956. Later that year, Pollock died in a car crash while driving under the influence.
The “black pourings” are now seen as among the most important works of his final years. Number 17, 1951, which set his auction record at US$61.2 million in 2021, belongs to this series.
S.I. Newhouse (1927-2017) and Other Highlight Lots
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 4 A | Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) | Danaïde, bronze with gold leaf and black patina
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
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 linenExecuted 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
S.I. Newhouse and Anna Wintour
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.
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
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