Ron Perelman Taps Sotheby’s to Sell Off More of His Art Collection

By: Benyamin Davidsons

Ron Perelman, the banker, businessman and investor, has tapped Sotheby’s auctions to sell off more of his extensive collection of valuable art.  The 77-year-old billionaire already sold off two pieces from his collection for a sum of $37.3 million last month.  As reported by Bloomberg, Perelman, who is one of the world’s top art collectors with roughly 1,000 precious holdings, is looking to offload a good amount of his 20th- and 21st-century treasures.

Sotheby’s London helped the Revlon-owner sell his major Joan Miró and Henri Matisse paintings in its cross-category sale for $28.7 million and $8.3 million respectively.  Sotheby’s will now act as broker for additional pieces, mostly conducting private transactions rather than public auctions.  Liz Sterling, one of Perelman’s former in-house curators, currently is director of private sales at Sotheby’s New York. As per Bloomberg, Perelman’s treasury of art, which will be offered for sale, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.   Pieces are from notable artists including Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Jeff Koons.  Perelman will use the proceeds of the art sales to pay off a loan from Citigroup, as per Artnet.

Perelman has a net worth of $7.4 billion as of July 2020, which is less than half of what it was in early 2018, Bloomberg reported.  Perelman’s company, MacAndrews & Forbes, invests in a wide array of sectors including groceries, makeup, cars, security, gaming, photography, television, camping supplies, jewelry, banks, and comic book publishing.  Perelman is annually one of the largest philanthropic donors in the world.

At the end of July, Perelman had sold off his 70-percent share in AM General , the maker of Humvee military jeeps, at a fire-sale price.  At the time, Perelman’s spokesman had said he was looking to unload some of his assets “due to changes in the world both socially and economically”.  The spokesman told Bloomberg News that the divestitures “will allow us to be opportunistic and flexible in looking at new situations.”

Sotheby’s and Perelman’s company did not comment.  In a rare public statement, last month Perelman told Vanity Fair that he was trying to simplify his life.