Sotheby's will present a selection of works from Armand Hammer’s storied private collection, with proceeds to benefit the Armand Hammer Foundation. The series of sales, beginning with the Modern Evening Auction in New York this November, offers collectors and institutions a rare opportunity to acquire paintings that once formed part of one of the twentieth century's most celebrated private collections. The selection of 12 works is estimated in the region of $25–37 million. Proceeds from the sales will benefit the Foundation's mission, building upon the tradition of public good that Dr. Armand Hammer established during his lifetime.

Ahead of the marquee sales, a dedicated preview exhibition of sale highlights will be on public view at Sotheby's galleries in Los Angeles from September 23 to 25, offering an important moment to see the paintings in the city so closely tied to Dr. Hammer's legacy, before they travel to Hong Kong, Paris, and ultimately New York.

The group of works is led by Edgar Degas' Trois danseuses (Jupes jaunes) and Mary Cassatt's Summertime, a jewel-toned view of leisure on the water, poised to set a new auction record for the artist. Together with works by Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and more, the November sales will showcase the breadth and quality of Dr. Hammer's collecting vision and his enduring appreciation for many of the defining figures of nineteenth and early twentieth-century art.

In December, the collection's celebrated marine masterpiece by Ivan Aivazovsky, The Naval Blockade of Crete, will be presented in Sotheby's Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction in London. Widely regarded as one of the foremost marine painters of the nineteenth century, Aivazovsky achieved extraordinary effects of light, atmosphere, and movement, and The Naval Blockade of Crete is among the most ambitious and accomplished compositions.

Following the Los Angeles preview, traveling exhibitions of New York Sales highlights will be held in Hong Kong (October 13–15) and Paris (October 19–23), ahead of the November sales in New York. The collection's presentation will continue through Sotheby's Fabergé, Imperial & Revolutionary Art sale in London this November, its Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction in London this December, and into 2027, with additional works to be offered in Sotheby's Art of the Americas sale in January and its Master Paintings & Works of Art sales in February, all held in New York.

More than an assembly of exceptional works, this grouping stands as a deeply personal reflection of Dr. Hammer's life of adventure and connoisseurship. Each painting, and particularly the masterpieces by Degas, Cassatt, Pissarro, Renoir, and Aivazovsky, speaks to his highly discerning eye and his lifelong intellectual and artistic curiosity. As Hammer himself once wrote, "Collecting art is a challenge, one I have pursued throughout my life, traveling the world over and learning that art has a universal way of speaking to each of us."