More Lehman Corporate Heads To Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 20th 2010 at 2:01AM

It's been two years since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy (check out our sister blog Daily Finance's coverage of the event). Since then, gradually we've seen much of the company's corporate art go up for sale. On September 25, Sotheby's New York will sell the $10 million art collection of Lehman Brothers and of the money manager it bought in 2003, Neuberger Berman. As the NY Observer puts it the Sotheby's sale offers a glimpse into Wall Street's glory days. What's intriguing is that the art advisors bought with both their hearts and their wallets, buying works from "name" artists that had failed to sell at auction in the hopes that the pieces would be worth more later. It looks like we'll soon find out.

The most expensive piece in the auction is Damien Hirst's We've Got Style (The Vessel Collection-Blue), which should bring in around $1 million (nearly a bargain by Hirst standards). Other pieces include Takashi Murakami's 1998 Chaos and Untitled I by Julie Mehretu which is estimated by Sotheby's at $600,000 to $800,000.

The Observer article also addresses the issue of provenance. Will the idea of picking over the remains of Lehman Brothers tempt or turn off potential buyers? The sale was once called the Lehman auction, then it was the Neuberger Berman & Lehman Brothers auction but now it's just the Neuberger Berman auction on the Sotheby's website. Check out the Observer article for more info on some of the price pieces being auctioned off including the Richard Prince painting shown at right.

Tags: art, corporate art, lehman brothers, neuberger berman