(Bloomberg) -- Roy Lichtenstein’s 1982 print of the Statue of Liberty, once wall candy at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is expected to contribute about $30,000 to the bankrupt company’s coffers when it’s offered for auction in November.
Lehman will begin selling its multimillion-dollar corporate art collection in a series of three sales at Freeman’s Auctioneers in Philadelphia this winter.
Lehman is shedding 650 lots, projected to fetch a total of $1 million. They include modern and contemporary paintings, prints and drawings, along with a smaller group of American and European paintings and prints from Lehman’s New York, Boston and Delaware offices. Sales are scheduled for Nov. 1, Dec. 6 and Feb. 12, 2010.
“We tried to price things consistent with what they will bring in the current market,’’ said Anne Henry, Freeman’s vice president of modern and contemporary works of art. “There’s a lot of really attractive work at affordable levels.’’
Lehman filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008. Proceeds from art sales will benefit creditors. Lehman Chief Executive Officer Bryan Marsal has said the firm owes as much as $250 billion. (In the beginning of July, Lehman began selling on EBay Inc. items originally produced as freebies for clients and employees.)
Items in the November sale range from an abstract 2007 black-and-blue collage by Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera, estimated to sell for as much as $15,000, to a surreal 1997 Louise Bourgeois print of an undulating bed with lips for as much as $1,500.
The firm’s art collection consists mostly of European and American art from the 1970s onwards. Willie Cole and French sculptor Bernar Venet are among those offered in this first round of selling.
Rocky Time for Art
The auctions come at a rocky time for the art market. Christie’s International recently reported that its worldwide sales plummeted 35 percent in the first six months of 2009 from the year-earlier period.
“At the moment, it doesn’t look like a good time for sellers,’’ said New York private dealer Meredith Palmer. “I don’t anticipate they are going to get good prices for a lot of these things.’’
On the plus side, buyers may find deals.
“People may see this sale as an opportunity,’’ said Palmer, who said the Lehman name wouldn’t have a big impact. “The provenance isn’t a negative thing,’’ she said. “But I don’t think it has much to add.’’
Lehman hired New Hampshire-based art consultant Kelly Wright in January to inspect artworks at several Lehman offices and storage facilities and recommend a selling strategy.
Competition for Sale
Freeman’s, a 200-year-old regional auction house in Philadelphia, holds more than 30 sales a year. It competed for the consignment against other auction houses, according to Lehman spokeswoman Kimberly Macleod.
Lehman owns more than 3,000 artworks, and some of those aren’t being sold, such as art that hung in Lehman’s New York headquarters. The building is now occupied by Barclays Plc, which acquired Lehman along with a one-year option to buy the art. That option expires in September.
Lehman’s best-known art holdings are 900 works owned by money manager Neuberger Berman, a firm Lehman acquired in 2003. The collection focuses on painting and photography and is the legacy of the company’s art-collecting founder, Roy Neuberger.
Artists represented in Neuberger’s collection include Marlene Dumas, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami.
The fate of these holdings is undecided. In December, Neuberger management acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal that closed May 4. Management has a one-year option, expiring May 4, 2010, to buy the art.
To contact the reporter on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com;
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