Self-made beauty mogul Sydell Miller’s collection will lead Sotheby’s marquee sales in New York this November. Roughly 90 works will be featured in dedicated evening and day sales titled “A Legacy of Beauty,” with additional works offered in sales throughout the fall. In total, the collection is expected to achieve in the region of $200 million.
Headlining the evening sale is a large, late water lilies canvas by Claude Monet, as Artnet’s Katya Kazakina revealed earlier this month. Dating to 1914–17, it prefigures the artist’s Nymphéas magnum opus at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. This particular example from the iconic series is making its auction debut with an estimate provided on request. According to the Artnet Price Database, the most expensive water lilies canvas sold at auction to date is Nymphéas en fleur, also from 1914–17, which sold at Christie’s New York in 2018 for $84.6 million.
Pablo Picasso, La Statuaire (1925). Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Other highlights include Picasso’s La Statuaire (1925), priced upon request, bought by Miller in 1999, as well as the artist’s Tête de femme (1951), a bronze sculpture capturing the likeness of fellow artist and one-time partner Françoise Gilot. It is the second cast of this subject to ever appear at auction in over 40 years and is estimated at $7 million to $10 million. Wassily Kandinsky’s Weisses Oval (White Oval) (1921), estimated to fetch $15 million to $20 million, is one of the final three paintings he made while living in Russia and has not been seen at auction in more than 50 years.
An avid collector with a keen eye, additional works from Miller’s palatial art-filled home—which filled an entire floor of Palm Beach’s illustrious beachfront condo the Bristol—include a pair of Nenuphars consoles commissioned directly from Claude Lalanne (estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million each), which were placed in conversation with Monet’s Nymphéas in the house, as well as Henry Moore’s Mother and Child with Apple (estimated at $3 million to $5 million) and Yves Klein’s Relief éponge bleu sans titre (RE 28), which is estimated to fetch $8 million to $12 million.
Wassily Kandinsky, Weisses Oval (White Oval) (1921). Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
“What stands out is the thread that runs through every painting, sculpture and object—that of Miller’s eye for beauty as she innately understood it,” said Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart. “We are thrilled to celebrate her lifetime of creativity, innovation and philanthropy through the artworks that were her private sanctuary and inspiration.”
Once a stay-at-home wife in Cleveland, Ohio, Miller and her husband, Arnold, created two major beauty brands: Ardell, a leader in the field of false eyelashes, and Matrix Essentials, one of the largest manufacturers of salon products in the U.S. After Arnold died in the 1990s, Miller went on to helm Matrix before selling it to Bristol Myers Squibb for $400 million in 1994. She was the first non-hairdresser elected to the National Cosmetology Association’s Hall of Fame and was named one of the “Top 50 Women Business Owners in America” by Working Women Magazine. Miller died in February at the age of 86.
Sydell Miller. Photo: Will Ragozzino/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.
A portion of the auction proceeds will benefit her various philanthropic passions, including the Cleveland Clinic Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Sydell L. Miller Elephant Care & Visitor Center at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
A further selection of works showcasing the full breadth of Miller’s collecting pursuits will be featured in three dedicated online sales. The first online sale will celebrate Miller’s keen eye for fashion, followed by an auction celebrating the collection’s expansive range of objets d’art, and another featuring furniture, decorative art, and silver. A selection of her jewelry will also be showcased in Sotheby’s sales of “Magnificent Jewels and Fine Jewels” in December as part of ‘The Luxury Sales” series.