Dispersal of The Collection
Sally Ganz consigned 12 paintings to Sotheby's, where they sold for $48.4 million on November 10, 1988, the third-highest gross for a collection of modern and contemporary art sold at auction. Inheritance taxes forced the Ganzes' children to dispose of the most valuable part of the collection in 1997. In November 1997, works from the collection were sold in four separate auctions at Christie's, New York. At the time, Christie's estimated the sales to fetch more than $125 million. More than 25,000 people visited Christie's to view the works and more than 2,000 people attended the auction.
For 73 of the 114 works sold in 1997, initial purchase prices are known. In 1997 dollars, these works had cost $4.9 million and fetched $206.5 million (including buyer's premium) in November, 1997. The Ganzes are estimated to have netted revenue of $183.8 million. The annualised growth in value (after inflation) was 12.06%, or 11.74% after seller's commissions. At the time of the auction, it was the largest private owner art sale in history.
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