Jeff Koons is preparing to part with a major portion of his personal art collection, with nine works expected to generate around $100 million at Christie’s auctions in New York. The collection, titled “Heroes and Lovers,” spans approximately 500 years of art history and includes works by Pablo Picasso, Édouard Manet, Cornelis van Haarlem, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Le Moyne and Tilman Riemenschneider.
The identity of the seller was not initially disclosed by Christie’s, which described the owner as a “distinguished private collector.” However, multiple people familiar with the transaction have identified the collector as Koons. Christie’s itself confirmed the collection consists of nine major works and estimated their combined value at about $100 million.
The sale offers an unusual look at the collecting habits of one of the world’s best-known contemporary artists. Koons has spent decades producing works that have commanded enormous prices, but he has also used his fortune to acquire important pieces by artists from earlier periods.
Picasso’s Le Baiser Could Lead the $100 Million Sale
The most valuable work in the collection is expected to be Pablo Picasso’s 1969 painting Le Baiser, or The Kiss. Christie’s estimates that the painting could sell for approximately $40 million, making it the centerpiece of the upcoming collection.
Koons acquired Le Baiser at Sotheby’s in 2008 for $17.4 million. Painted on October 24, 1969, the work depicts two abstracted faces locked in an intense kiss and comes from the final years of Picasso’s career. Christie’s identifies it as the leading work in Heroes and Lovers, describing the collection as an exploration of passion, morality, courage and human connection.
Koons’ interest in Picasso extends beyond this painting. The nine works being offered include four Picasso pieces, including a 1941 portrait of Dora Maar. Koons also purchased another late Picasso work in 2011 for $10.5 million.
The collection also reaches much further back into art history. Among its highlights is Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem’s Hercules and Achelous, painted in 1590.
Koons reportedly purchased the Old Master painting at auction in 2008 for $8.1 million, more than four times its high estimate. That purchase established an auction record for the Dutch Mannerist painter, and Christie’s now values the work at roughly $12 million.
The remaining works include pieces by Édouard Manet, François Le Moyne, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Tilman Riemenschneider. Christie’s says seven of the nine works will be offered during its 20th Century Evening Sale in November 2026, while the two Old Master works will appear during Classic Week in early 2027.
Christie’s has also guaranteed the Heroes and Lovers collection. A guarantee provides the seller with a minimum level of financial security before the auction, either through the auction house itself or through a third-party guarantor.
That arrangement is significant given the collection’s estimated $100 million value. Rather than leaving the entire result dependent on bidding during the sales, Koons has a guaranteed minimum outcome for the works being offered.
The timing is also notable because Koons remains one of the most commercially successful living artists. His 1986 stainless-steel sculpture Rabbit sold for $91.075 million at Christie’s in 2019, setting a world auction record for a work by a living artist at the time.
Rabbit was part of the collection of publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse, whose works generated more than $216 million in that 2019 sale. Christie’s notes that the Koons sculpture remained the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction at the time.
Koons’ own auction market has experienced significant changes since that record-breaking sale, but the upcoming Christie’s auction demonstrates the scale of his private collecting activities.
The Heroes and Lovers sale therefore represents more than another major auction. It gives the public a rare look at the works Koons himself considered valuable enough to acquire, while potentially turning purchases made years ago into tens of millions of dollars in realized value.