Francis Bacon: Figure in Movement, 1978, is estimated for £14 million to £18 million and Study for a Figure (circa 1945) estimated for £4 million to £6 million.Courtesy of Christie's

Christie’s to Auction Peter Simon’s $172 M. Art Collection, Led by Bacon, Mondrian, Warhol Works

by · ARTnews

An art collection, estimated to be worth £87 million to £127 million ($118 million to $172 million), featuring works by Francis Bacon, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Jeff Koons, and more, is coming to Christie’s on October 14 and 15 during Frieze Week. The collection belongs to British businessman and art collector Peter Simon, who has appeared on each edition of ARTnews’ Top 200 Collectors list since 2005.

The sale of “Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection” is the highest-value single-owner collection offered to date at Christie’s London. Comprising nearly 200 works, the sale will be spread across three auctions: an evening sale, a day sale, and an online auction.

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Simon is the founder of fashion retailer Monsoon and Accessorize. In a statement, he explained that in the early days of Monsoon, he would sit with “fashion and textile designers sifting portfolio after portfolio” selecting work that could be converted onto fabric. Handpicking colors and prints, he added, informed his taste and ability to “zero in on the best combination of color and composition in a picture.”

When he was building his art collection, he first started with British artists, notably Bacon, Nicholson, and Hepworth. Simon’s aim was to always “build links and foster dialogue across different worlds” and now he wants to start collecting in “a new direction.”

Piet Mondrian’s Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (1935).Courtesy of Christie’s

The highlight lot includes two Bacon’s works: Figure in Movement (1978) estimated for £14 million to £18 million ($19 million to $24.4 million) and Study for a Figure (ca. 1945) estimated for £4 million to £6 million ($5.4 million to $8 million). The Mondrian Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (1935) is estimated to go under the gavel for £8 million to £12 million ($11 million to $16 million), while Joan Miró’s Peinture (Les amants – Adam et Eve), 1925, is estimated for £7 million to £10 million ($9.5 million to $14 million).

The collection also includes works from Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, Fernand Léger, Willem de Kooning, and Andy Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoe (1980) estimated for £1.8 million to £2.5 million ($2.4 million to $3.4 million), which spans more than two meters in height and is a nod to the artist’s career as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, where he had earned the moniker “Leonardo da Vinci of the shoe trade” by Women’s Wear Daily.

Katharine Arnold, Christie’s vice chairman of 20th and 21st century art in Europe, described Simon’s collection as “dynamic” and “unbridled by geography and time.”