Christie’s Secures Sale of $30 M. de la Cruz Collection

The expansive collection of Cuban-born, Miami-based philanthropist and art collector Rosa de la Cruz will be sold at Christie’s over a series of auctions starting this May during the New York evening sales.

De la Cruz, who died last month at 81, was central to Miami’s art scene. With her husband Carlos, she opened a 30,000-square-foot museum in Miami to display their contemporary art collection, which is thought to number 1,000 works.

The artists responsible for those works range from established blue-chippers like Wade Guyton and Albert Oehlen to younger emerging artists like Su Su and Christina Quarles. Their collection earned the de la Cruzes a repeated spot on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list.

Artnet News first reported news of the collection’s sale on Friday. The collection will likely be sold by the auction house over several sales for an estimated total of $30 million, with lots ranging from $5,000 on the low end to $5 million on the high end.

The Miami space the de la Cruzes have run since 2009 is now closed, Artnet reported.

Among the standout artists in the de la Cruz collection is the Cuban-born Ana Mendieta. As of 2015, the year the de la Cruzes’ Miami space held a Mendieta show, the couple owned 24 works by her; at the time, that was the largest grouping of pieces by Mendieta held privately, according to Artnet News.

“Rosa was an extraordinarily generous patron who spent 20 years championing the artists she loved in depth,” Isabella Lauria, head of Christie’s 21st century art evening sales, told ARTnews. “The de la Cruz collection now exhibits the world’s most significant private holdings of Ana Mendieta, who sits amongst the most radical artistic voices of our time—and who has recently been receiving the accolades she deserves, both institutionally and within popular culture more largely. We are truly thrilled to see how our collectors respond this spring.”

The last time one of Mendieta’s works appeared at an evening auction at Christie’s was in 2016, when her 1982 work La Vivificación de la Carne: El Laberinto de Venus Series sold for $143,000 against a high estimate of $100,000. According to the auction house, a selection of Mendieta works will be sold during one of their upcoming evening sales, though it was not specified which one.