Jeff Koons Sells the Collection That Inspired Him

The “heroes” half of Christie’s auction title refers to van Haarlem’s 1590 painting of Hercules competing with a river god for the hand of a princess. Koons purchased it as part of his 2008 buying spree for today’s equivalent of $12.6 million, although it carries an estimate of about $12 million this time around, even after being lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011. Several years later, Koons adapted another van Haarlem composition for his Gazing Ball paintings, in which mirrored spherical ornaments are placed on top of or within replicas of classical art.

Rounding out the group are Manet’s 1878-79 work on paper Femme au tub and a late Gothic carving of Saint Catherine by Tilman Riemenschneider. The temporal and stylistic scope of this collection echoes the varied assortment of artworks and curiosities painters have amassed as private sources of inspiration for centuries. Rembrandt van Rijn spent thousands of guilders on his collection, which included pieces by his teacher, Pieter Lastman. An inventory drawn up after Peter Paul Rubens died in 1640 listed 324 paintings alongside a selection of gems and sculptures. Edgar Degas assembled several thousand paintings, drawings, and prints by the likes of Paul Cézanne, Mary Cassatt, Eugène Delacroix, and others. Picasso also owned several dozen works by Old and Modern Masters.

Contemporary artists are increasingly willing to turn those holdings into cash. Damien Hirst was the largest consignor to Christie’s fall 2024 sales, offering six lots led by a Koons stainless steel balloon sculpture, which sold for $9.9 million. Spanish artist José María Cano sold Jean-Michel Basquiat’s The Guilt of Gold Teeth at Christie’s in 2021 against an estimate of $40 million to $80 million. Both sales were backed by guarantees, as is the Koons consignment.

Koons himself reached the peak of his market in 2019 when his 1986 Rabbit sold at Christie’s for $91.1 million. However, his auction performance is estimated to have fallen nearly 60% over the past decade in auction sales. Hirst, whose 2008 Sotheby’s sale of Beautiful Inside My Head Forever brought in more than $148 million, has seen similar volatility since.

Blue-chip modern art has held its value far better than most contemporary markets, so the timing for this Koons collection sale makes sense, even if it means the partial loss of a working library. There is no doubt Koons still has plenty of inspiration to draw from.