As May’s marquee auctions draw near, the major houses are rolling out their top lots in a bid to stir buyer enthusiasm, even as tariffs rattle markets and investment jitters persist. Among the standout consignments this season is a trove of nine abstract masterpieces from the storied Bass House collection, assembled by Sid and Anne Bass, which will hit Christie’s rostrum as part of their highly anticipated 20th evening sale. The selection includes prime works by pioneering artists like Mark Rothko, Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Morris Louis and Gino Severini—all coming to auction after having been hanging in harmonious integration with the design and architecture of the couple’s sumptuous Fort Worth, Texas, villa.
“We are thrilled to present Art from the Bass House as a cornerstone of Marquee Week this spring. This collection brings together the best in art, architecture, design and style, with offerings by a cross-section of the finest names in modern art,” Rachael White Young, Co-Head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, Christie’s New York, told Observer. “The collection speaks to the quality of each individual work as well as the uniquely elegant marriage of art and architecture within the space.”
The Bass House Story
The Bass House, which the couple commissioned from American architect Paul Rudolph in the early 1970s, was called “one of the great achievements not only of Rudolph’s prolific career, but of American architecture” by architecture critic Paul Goldberger. It stands as the architect’s largest and most ambitious single-family project. The Bass House was preceded by years of appreciation for the legendary architect; Sid first encountered Rudolph’s work as a student at Yale, where Rudolph designed the university’s Art and Architecture Building. Anne developed an appreciation for art and architecture while studying art history and Italian literature at Vassar College before marrying the Texas oil tycoon.
Determined to commission Rudolph to design their future home, the couple spent an entire year drafting a letter to make their request. Rudolph accepted, on the condition that the home must be conceived as a total work of art, with architecture and artworks in dialogue, completing and enhancing the architectural and design features of the project. Notably, the Basses were both only 28 at the time.
Rudolph delivered a Brutalist symphony of floating planes, minimal colors and clean volumes—a structure designed as much for living as for seeing. In the masterful orchestration of the relation between light and space, between empty and full areas, natural light particularly played a key role, with an architectural structure designed to maintain an organic and open relationship with its surroundings.
Installation view, Mark Rothko (1903-1970), No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange Plum Black], 1950-51, in the Piano Room of the Bass House. Photography: Martien Mulder
Among the highlights of the Bass House collection that Christie’s will offer in the evening sale are the two central monumental canvases once hanging in the living room, Gamma Upsilon by Morris Louis, coming with an estimate of $2-3 million and Firuzabad III by Frank Stella ($1- 2 million). The collection contains other massive works, including a nearly eight-by-fifteen-foot Blue Black Red by Elsworth Kelly (estimate: $4-6 million) which was dominating the playing room, and Anne’s beloved Danseuse by Gino Severini (est. $1.5–2.5 million) which sat by her desk in a tribute to her lifelong devotion to ballet—she kept up thrice-weekly classes nearly until her death.
More meditative abstraction comes from two pristine Agnes Martins: Untitled #11 ($3.5–5.5 million) and Untitled #2 ($1.5–2.5 million), which flanked a grand piano. Together, these works articulate the refined and rigorously curated taste Anne was known for, which is evident across her decades as a collector and patron.
The sale follows Anne’s death in April 2020. She divorced Sid Bass in 1988, securing what was then Texas’s largest divorce settlement—reportedly over $200 million. Though she stepped back from the society circuit in the 2000s, she remained a force in cultural philanthropy, serving in the boards of the Fort Worth Art Museum, the New York City Ballet, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the New York Botanical Garden and donating exclusive pieces of own couture pieces to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A portion of Anne’s collection was already offered at auction at Christie’s in 2022, achieving a total of $363.1 million, surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $250 million and closing with white gloves, with 149 percent of the lots above the low estimate. Led by the iconic $75.9 million Claude Monet’s Le Parlement, soleil couchant (1903), the sale set twelve new records at the time, including Edgar Degas’s Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans, which fetched $41.6 million. At the time, Max Carter, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s, described the Anne H. Bass collection as representing “the pinnacle of the artists it contained, the pinnacle of taste, the pinnacle of modern collecting.”
Other Notable Works to Headline Christie’s in May
This latest top-tier consignment joins other headline lots at Christie’s, including Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule, which will also be offered with a whopping $30 million—50 million estimate during Christie’s 20th Century Evening sale on May 12. The painting boasts exceptional provenance, having remained in the Durand-Ruel family until 1955 and been held in a private collection for the last 60 years. Rounding out the lineup are Remedios Varo’s rare 1955 canvas Revelación (El relojero), and one of Andy Warhol’s most controversial and political works, Big Electric Chair (orange), offered from the Matthys-Colle Collection at an estimate near $30 million.
The same week Christie’s will be also auctioning another version of René Magritte, L’empire des lumières and a 1922 composition by Piet Mondrian from the Leonard Riggio, founder of Barnes & Noble and his wife Louise—the other major consignment Christie’s secured this season, which will be offered in a dedicated evening sale leading the 20th and 21st Century Art auction series. Meanwhile, the auction house announced a 20-30 million worth triple portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat Baby Boom from his most coveted period, the 80s, leading as top highlight the 21st Century Evening Sale on May 14 at Christie’s New York.
As auction house totals have continued to decline over the past two years—down 25 percent last year alone, according to the latest Art Basel and UBS report—these first post-tariff marquee sales will serve as a key test for the art market. For now, it’s clear that auction houses are fiercely competing to secure top consignments, as only the highest-quality lots continue to perform well in an increasingly selective and cautious buyer environment.
