Gagosian to Sell 11 Works from Michael Chow's Art Collection

Gagosian will sell 11 works from Michael Chow's collection — including portraits of the restaurateur by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney and Keith Haring — in an exhibition opening November 4 at the gallery's Beverly Hills space.

The show, "Friends and Legends: The Collection of Michael Chow," runs four days in Beverly Hills before moving to Gagosian's new headquarters at 980 Madison Avenue in New York. The second installment opens November 14, timed to the city's fall auction season, and runs through December 22.

The blue-chip lineup could have anchored an evening sale at the November marquee auctions. According to sources familiar with the sale, one auction house hoped to make a deal with Mr. Chow, but Gagosian won out. The gallery has not disclosed prices, and Chow has not explained why he is selling now.

How did a restaurant become an art collection?

Chow opened his first restaurant in London's Knightsbridge in 1968, followed by Beverly Hills in 1974 and New York in 1979. Mr. Chow became an unofficial dining room for the international art world: artists ate there, collectors held court, and Chow — himself an artist — built friendships with major contemporary names. Many of those friendships produced portraits that have hung in his restaurants for decades.

Gagosian has been a regular at the restaurant for more than 30 years. "It's hard to think of a restaurant more synonymous with the art world than Mr. Chow," he said in a statement, adding that he'd known Chow even longer than he'd been hosting parties there.

What's actually on offer?

• Ed Ruscha's Mr. Chow L.A. (1973), painted with kitchen ingredients including egg yolk, soybean paste, beets and coconut milk.
• Keith Haring's Mr. Chow as Green Prawns in a Bowl of Noodles (1986), depicting three versions of Chow swimming among the ingredients of a signature dish.
• Warhol's Portrait of Michael Chow (1984), a two-panel work coated in the artist's trademark diamond dust.
• A 1959 Warhol folding screen with a dessert drawing and a playful recipe, which stood for years near the Beverly Hills restaurant's dessert section.
• Basquiat's 1985 portrait, plus works by Peter Blake, Hockney, Julian Schnabel — the last incorporating broken plates and fine china from the restaurant — and an Urs Fischer candle sculpture.
• An Artist Drawing Book filled with drawings and inscriptions by guests including Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Louise Nevelson, Francesco Clemente and Mark Grotjahn.

The Basquiat came with an unusual studio story. "I sat for Jean-Michel," Chow recalled in the announcement. "He made this powerful image and then ferociously painted over the picture without looking at me or the canvas."

What does this change for the market?

The deal shows a top-tier private collection bypassing the auction houses entirely, landing with a dealer who beat at least one bidding house to the consignment. With prices undisclosed and the New York leg timed against the November evening sales, the sale tests whether a gallery setting can move marquee Warhols and Basquiats at auction-season prices.

Chow framed the parting in his own theatrical register. "Art and artists have been at the heart of my life," he said in a statement. "Now, it's time to see them go out into the world and have my fifteen minutes."