Christie's to Sell $8M in Works from Collector Mickey Cartin

Christie's will offer upward of 80 works from Connecticut collector Mickey Cartin's collection, estimated to fetch as much as $8 million. The sales span more than 10 auctions in London, Paris, and New York, running from this November until July 2027.

Cartin, now 78, began collecting in 1988. He ranked on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list from 2007 to 2013. In 1971 he joined Connecticut's Capitol Light and Supply Company, founded by his grandfather in 1918. He became its president and grew the firm from a staff of a dozen to a national enterprise employing hundreds. The collection hung in his homes in Connecticut, Delray Beach, Florida, and a 5,800-square-foot Greenwich Village apartment currently listed at $10 million.

What are the top lots?

Two works carry mid-six-figure estimates and map the range of the holdings.

• Roman Opałka's over-six-foot-high painting OPAŁKA 1965/1 – Détail 3820343–3843981, executed according to a program the artist conceived in 1965 to paint every number from one to infinity, estimated at $400,000–$600,000.
• The 15th-century Netherlandish panel Resurrection of Christ by the Master of the Virgo Inter Virgines, restituted to the heirs of Dutch dealer Jacques Goudstikker after Nazi looting. It is the rare European work of its era to include a Black figure among the soldiers at Christ's tomb, and it previously hung in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.

The Master's market is thin. Artnet's auction database lists just nine works by the artist, his circle, or imitators; his top sale to date was $35,874, paid for a crucifixion scene at Kunsthaus Lempertz in 1998.

Other top lots include:

• Walton Ford's watercolor Avatars – The Birds of India (1996), estimated at $200,000–$300,000.
• A 1950 Giorgio de Chirico self-portrait, at $180,000–$250,000.
• The Theuerdank, a 1517 book printed for Emperor Maximilian I recounting his youthful exploits in verse, at £100,000–£150,000 (about $133,000–$200,000).
• Georg Bartisch's 1583 Ophthalmodouleia: Das ist Augendienst, the first Renaissance manuscript on ophthalmic disorders and eye surgery, estimated at £70,000–£100,000 ($93,000–$133,000).

Cartin's reach extends to outsider art and rare books from the 13th century to contemporary artists' books.

Why does the collection cross categories?

Steven Holmes, Cartin's curator of two decades, said in a phone interview: "One of the things that gets said about Mickey is he was one of the earliest collectors who collected across categories. But he never even really understood categories, and still doesn't. He's just compelled by the object on its own."

Holmes recalled an installation pairing an Agnes Martin, a Jean-Michel Basquiat, a 16th-century Hans Memling Madonna, and the Master of the Virgo Inter Virgines panel. "These each have their own story and their own holding power, but all together, it was such an experience of them all going together in a way that made sense without there necessarily being any logic to it," he said. "There is something devotional about an Agnes Martin, which is what the Madonna is. There were notions of devotion, or miracle, or meanings above meaning."

He added: "These can be really quite thrilling, not just visually or in terms of who the artists are, their art historical importance, but the energy that comes out of those conversations and proximities."

Michael Baptist, Christie's vice president, specialist, and co-head of postwar and contemporary art day sale, identified two principles in Cartin's philosophy. "One, he is curious about ideas and things that are exquisite examples of artists even if he doesn't know about them. If he sees an idea in an artwork, that turns him on as a collector," Baptist said in a phone interview. He continued: "He acquires works because each individual object captures his imagination. It sounds so simple, but if you can really adhere to that as a collector, you're going to have an outstanding collection, and it's not going to follow the guidelines collectors often follow. Another thing that doesn't get talked about enough is that once he's identified an idea or a density of information, he collects that in depth."

Selections from the collection have reached market before, notably a 2021 David Zwirner exhibition in New York featuring Josef Albers, Joseph Cornell, Albrecht Dürer, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Giorgio Morandi, Rembrandt van Rijn, Myron Stout, Adolf Wölfli, and Joseph Yoakum. The nearly three-year Christie's rollout will test whether that category-defying breadth can hold its value across two continents and three sale rooms.