Four Pinball Machines, a 1962 canvas painting from the California artist Wayne Thiebaud, may fetch as much as $25 million at a Christie’s auction held on July 10, according to Fortune.
The painting – with a low estimate at $18 million – hasn’t been seen in public since the artist’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art 20 years ago, and would be more than double Thiebaud’s auction record. He will turn 100 in November.
It last appeared at auction in 1981, selling for $143,000 to Donald Bren, the billionaire chairman of Irvine Co., one of California’s largest private landowners, according to the provenance provided by Christie’s.
In 1982, Bren sold the work to San Francisco investment manager Ken Siebel, the father-in-law of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and his wife Judy. “It’s certainly one of the very best investments,” Siebel said, citing estate planning as a reason for the decision to sell.
Visit www.christies.com to see the calendar and put in a bid if you have upwards of $18 million to invest… that sure would be some piece to have in your pinball arcade!
