Paintings that belonged to the late "queen of the beauty industry" sell for $216 million
Paintings once owned by Sydell L. Miller – once dubbed the “queen of the beauty industry” – sparked nine separate bidding wars during a Sotheby’s auction this week, as collectors vied to purchase the late, self-made millionaire’s collection of works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and others.
Miller, who died in March, co-created a beauty empire with her husband Arnold. The pair revolutionized the world of eyelash extensions and founded the innovative salon brand, Matrix Essentials. Though she began life as a middle-class girl from Cleveland, by the time of her death Miller owned a Palm Beach mansion so vast that writer Laurence Leamer described it as resembling a “railroad station or state library.”
Chief among the pieces that sparked bidding wars was Monet’s Nymphéas, which depicted the impressionist’s iconic water lilies. Monet’s work sold for $65.5 million with fees after 17 minutes and 34 bids.
“We do have to move on here,” an auctioneer said, during the sale, according to ArtNews. “There are other lots and other vendors.”
More than 90 works of modern and contemporary art from Miller’s collection were featured at the Sotheby’s “A Legacy Beauty” auction. The first 25 lots sold from Miller’s collection pulled in $216 million with fees. The auction house described the sale of Miller’s collection as the “crown jewel” of its marquee sales week.
“What stands out is the thread that runs through every painting, sculpture and object – that of Miller’s eye for beauty as she innately understood it,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to celebrate her lifetime of creativity, innovation and philanthropy through the artworks that were her private sanctuary and inspiration.”
Miller reportedly prided herself on her expansive art collection: among her most notable pieces were Picasso’s first painting of a woman artist and a Henri Matisse portrait created in World War II France.
“I collect pieces I love. Each piece I collect speaks to me in a language of art and design and always excited me when I saw them for the first time,” Miller once said. “Even today, these pieces still make my heart flutter with joy. I never collected from just one period in time or style. Always collected things that I connected to through their beauty.”
There will be a subsequent auction of Miller’s jewelry in Sotheby’s sales of Magnificent Jewels and Fine Jewels in December.
