The Neue Galerie's Hot-Potato Schieles

The more I learn about the recent ownership history of the three Schieles that the Neue Galerie is selling on Wednesday at Christie's, the more complicated it becomes. The museum is marketing these works to help pay for its purchase of Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I." If they sell, they will have changed hands three times within about three years.

What's more, Scott Gutterman, deputy director of the museum would not comment on whether more art has been or will be sold to defray "Adele's" cost---reportedly $135 million. The three Schieles are estimated to bring $35-45 million.

We now know who the seller is, only because Gutterman recently confirmed it. In a departure from the usual practice for museum consignments, Christie's did not identify the Neue Galerie as the seller in the auction catalogue. Guy Bennett, head of the auction house's Impressionist and modern art department, at first declined to identify the seller to me, even after the Neue Galerie had been named by Bloomberg. But yesterday, in a phone conversation, he did confirm that the seller is the Neue Galerie.

Bennett also conceded that the information about recent ownership history for the works is inaccurately described in the auction catalogue:

The catalogue says that two of the three Schieles, both watercolors, were previously owned by the Neue Galerie's co-founder, the late Serge Sabarsky, and "acquired by the present owner in 2003." (The third, an oil on canvas, was acquired from the Aberbach Gallery, New York, "by the present owner," but no date of acquisition is given.)

But Gutterman informed me that the present owner---the Neue Galerie---has owned the three Schieles only "in recent months," not since 2003, as stated in the catalogue entries for the watercolors. He said they were donated to the museum by Ronald Lauder, its co-founder and president, some time after the museum's exhibition, "Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections,'' which closed in February. It was Lauder who acquired the two watercolors in 2003 from the Sabarsky collection. (Sabarsky died in 1996.)

Gutterman said that the decision not to identify the Neue Galerie as the owner was made by the auction house: "I can tell you that the Neue Galerie did not prevent Christie's from identifying the museum as the consignor." Bennett, when asked, provided no further insight into the reason for the omission.

When asked how the rest of the purchase price of "Adele" was being funded, and whether any additional artworks have been or will be sold to defray that cost, Gutterman replied only that "the purchasing arrangement is private."

Whatever the deal, and whatever the reasons for the various transfers of the Schieles before their sale, both Gutterman and Steven Thomas, attorney for the sellers, affirm that the Neue Galerie owns the Klimt in full.