S otheby’s Private Sales is excited to offer a curated selection of masterworks in our selling exhibition opening in New York this May. Running alongside our New York Marquee Auctions, this exhibition will showcase exceptional works that span over a century of artistic production. The show will be on view in our dedicated Private Sales gallery, designed to enhance our clients’ browsing experience whilst previewing auction highlights.
Featuring an unparalleled selection of unique works from Impressionist masters, to the pioneers of Modernism, the trailblazing Minimalists, visionary Abstract Expressionists and the contemporary vanguard, this exhibition spans the evolution of modern art history into the present day. Bridging the gaps across medium and category, Sotheby’s is thrilled to present a superb group of works that champion the strength and diversity of modern and contemporary periods during this exhilarating season in the art world.
View Works




- Jean Dubuffet – Le soleil les décolore
- Roy Lichtenstein – Head with Monocle
- Wayne Thiebaud – Untitled (For Window Gazing)
- Romare Bearden – Jazz Men
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Jean Dubuffet – Le soleil les décolore"Executed in 1947, following Jean Dubuffet’s first trip to the Sahara, Le Soleil les décolore is a formative early example from the artist’s celebrated Roses d’Allah, clowns du désert cycle. I’m excited to highlight this exceptional painting, one of just eighteen works from the series, as it highlights a decisive shift in Dubuffet’s style towards a greater, more raw abstraction which both anticipates and contributed to the broader artistic turn of the 1950s and 60s."
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Roy Lichtenstein – Head with Monocle"Head with Monocle presents a rare opportunity to acquire a work from the formative series of Expressionist heads, comprised of 18 paintings created between 1979-1980. The present work, however, stands as one of the most distinct compositional approaches to the subject, with the isolated figure filling the canvas to its edges, offering an incisive, uninterrupted view of Lichtenstein's exploration into the theme. In altering the mode of address from the German Expressionist woodcuts which served as inspiration, but upholding the visual cues associated with the imagery, Lichtenstein continues in his career-long project of establishing style as a distinct issue in painting separate and apart from a work’s subject."
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Wayne Thiebaud – Untitled (For Window Gazing)"This gem-like pastel by Wayne Thiebaud is a beautiful example of one of his most highly sought-after motifs, the cake, executed in his characteristically sumptuous palette of pastels. The work is brought to life by its charming back story: gifted by the artist to the present owners on the occasion of the birth of their first child, the two cakes, one blue and one pink, offer a playful nod to the gender for the expectant parents. Wayne Thiebaud’s work is currently on view at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco through August 2025 in Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art, a showcase of highlights from his six-decade career."
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Romare Bearden – Jazz Men"Jazz Men captures Romare Bearden’s profound connection to music—particularly jazz—as both subject and structure. A close friend of Duke Ellington, Bearden often created with music playing, likening his collage process to jazz improvisation: “You do something, then you improvise.” The rhythmic composition and layered forms reflect his deep engagement with Cubism, especially the work of Picasso, whom he studied closely and met in Paris during the 1950s. This dynamic synthesis of modernist form and African American cultural identity defines Bearden’s mature style."
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Mercedes Lámbarri Altamira is a Vice President, Head of Mid-Market Private Sales and a Specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art, based in New York. Mercedes has spent her entire career at Sotheby’s, having joined the Contemporary Department in Paris in 2012, where she worked until 2018 as a Head of Day Sale. She joined the New York Contemporary Art Department in 2019 as a Specialist and now oversees strategy for mid-market Contemporary Art private sales and advises clients on acquisitions and consignments.
Mercedes graduated with a B.A. in Art History from Middlebury College and a Master’s in Modern Art, Connoisseurship, and the Art Market from Christie’s Education.
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