Art Auction Nets Millions for Harry Macklowe and His New Wife

Real estate billionaire Harry Macklowe’s new wife should be pleased with the recent Sotheby’s auction of the art collection Macklowe owned with his ex-wife. The art sold for a whopping $676 million, half of which goes to Macklowe and his new bride.

The “Macklowe Collection” includes 65 art pieces that Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda had amassed over the 50 years they were married. The collection includes works from artists including Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and Mark Rothko.

“The Macklowe Collection is a compendium of masterpieces like no other - its visceral and intellectual power proved completely irresistible to collectors the world over,” said Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s chairman and head of sales for global fine art, in a statement.

When Harry and Linda divorced in 2018, the court ordered that the art collection be sold and the profits split between the two former spouses.

Half of the Macklowe Collection was sold on Nov. 15 and earned $676 million. According to Sotheby’s, it was the most valuable auction in the auction house’s 277-year history. The other half of the collection will be auctioned off in May 2022, Sotheby’s said.

The Mark Rothko 1951 painting “No. 7” had the biggest price tag in the auction and sold for $82.5 million to an undisclosed buyer. Jackson Pollock’s “Number 17, 1951” sold for $61.2 million, which is the most any piece by the late artist has garnered.

A 1962 silkscreen piece by pop artist Andy Warhol titled “Nine Marilyns” for the nine impressions of late actress Marilyn Monroe sold for $47.3 million. Another Warhol piece, “Sixteen Jackies” featuring Jacqueline Kennedy, sold for $33.9 million.

In an interview with Artnet after the auction, Macklowe said, “I am very, very pleased and happy.” Although Linda was at the auction, she didn’t talk to the press, Artnet reports.

Harry and Linda were married in 1959. Linda filed for divorce in 2016 after learning Harry set his French mistress, Patricia Landeau, up in an apartment in one of his buildings, The New York Post reported.

The contentious divorce lasted about two years and cost $2 billion. When the divorce was finalized in 2018, the judge ordered that most of the couple’s artwork be sold.

Linda, who is a trustee with the Guggenheim Museum, was able to keep $40 million worth of art, including nine Pablo Picasso pieces, but she had to pay Harry $20 million to do so, The New York Post reported.

Not long after the ink was dry on his divorce, Macklowe married Landeau in 2019. In what many in the New York media saw as a taunt to his ex-wife, Macklowe erected giant photos of himself and his new wife on the side of one of his buildings, which just happened to be the same building where Linda planned to buy an apartment.