Going Once…
Down an escalator at 56th and Park, is the Phillips auction house New York showroom. As luck would have it, not only was there an exhibit, but a live auction in progress the day I ventured down. “Out of This World”, a curated, natural history collection of fossils, millions of years old was on the block.
The Complete Eryops Skull
The pieces on auction were displayed around the showroom, so one could view them even as there were being auctioned in the back room. I witnessed the auction of The Ancient Hunter of the Permian Swamps Complete Eryops Skull.
The T-Rex Jaw
Shortly thereafter the Legacy of the Predator King Complete Tyrannosaurus Rex Jaw Section on a Custom Metal Stand went up for bid. Estimated to go for $180,000-$250,000, the 66 million year old artifact went for $550,000.
The excursion to Phillips was spurred by a lucky weekend trip to the new Sotheby’s showroom housed in the Breuer building. Sotheby’s opened the former Whitney space with the high profile Leonard Lauder estate collection. Lauder, a well known philanthropist and art collector and son of cosmetic icon Estee Lauder, passed away in June 2025. He has given away much art of the years, but this collection adorned his New York residence and office. Proceeds benefit The Lauder Foundation
The auction made headlines by selling the Klimt painting, The Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer, sold for $236.4 million.
On display that same day were collections from the Pritzker estate and Surrealist art. The latter featured a portrait by Frida Kahlo, which sold for $55 million.
The numbers are hard to fathom but the experience is informative.
