Widely described as the “queen of the beauty industry,” entrepreneur Sydell Miller surrounded herself with masterpieces, creating an extraordinary art collection that included awe-inspiring works like Monet’s iconic waterlilies, Kandinsky’s musical geometric abstractions and one-of-a-kind commissions by François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne. Later this fall, approximately ninety works from Miller’s exceptional collection will go on the block at Sotheby’s in a dedicated single-owner sale, “A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller.” Additional work will be offered in subsequent auctions, and the sales are expected to achieve around $200 million.
“I collect pieces I love,” Miller, who passed away earlier this year at age 86, once said about her collection. “Each piece I collect speaks to me in a language of art and design, and I am always excited when I see them for the first time. Even today, these pieces still make my heart flutter with joy. I never collected from just one period in time or style. I always collected things that I connected to through their beauty.”
The story behind the collection, not to mention the story of Miller’s life, feels like the plot of a classic Hollywood romance. In the late 1950s, Sydell Lubin sat in Arnold Miller’s salon for an appointment, and it was love at first sight. Before she left, he asked her out, and when she asked, “Which night?” he replied, “All of them.” From that moment, the two were inseparable, quickly becoming a power couple in the beauty industry. Together, they founded Ardell, introducing eyelashes as a professional salon service with Duralash, and later launched Matrix Essentials, one of the most innovative professional salon companies and the largest manufacturer of professional hair and beauty products. When her husband passed away in the 1990s, Miller took over as CEO and president, leading Matrix to unprecedented success with her visionary and passionate leadership.
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In her later years, after selling the company, she turned her focus to art collecting and philanthropy. Her home became her sanctuary, filled as it was with museum-quality fine art and design. Drawn to craftsmanship and elegance, she embraced daring contemporary works by designers like Lalanne while collecting pieces by emerging pioneers such as Robert Goosens, David Wiseman and Joseph Walsh.
Many of the lots have remained in the collection since their initial purchase and are now fresh on the market. As Sharon Kim, Sotheby’s vice chairman of Impressionist and Modern art, remarked when announcing the sale: “Like Sydell, the artists and designers in this collection defied the boundaries set before them, striving for beauty and transformation in their craft and leaving indelible marks on the history of art. Encompassing the pinnacle of Monet’s artistic achievements, Picasso’s triumphant paean to creativity—and beyond—this collection unites the titans of modern art history, each with their contribution to beauty: one of art’s most profound and enduring gifts to the world.”
Highlights of the sale include an exceptional example of Nymphéas by Claude Monet, with an estimate of around $60 million. Painted between 1914 and 1917, during the later phase of Monet’s life and career, the work reveals the artist blurring the lines between figuration and abstraction as he sought to capture the atmosphere of light more than the physical subject. This work anticipated the gestural marks and colors that would come to define Abstract Expressionism in New York thirty years later.
Another top lot in the sale is Picasso’s La Statuaire (1925), a portrait of a seated woman with a sculpture on a pedestal. This canvas unites his exploration of Surrealist symbolism, the monumentality and plasticity of Neo-Classical imagery and the disruptive fragmentation of Cubism. Also featured is Tête de femme, a bronze sculpture conceived by Picasso in 1951. Capturing the essence of a young Françoise Gilot, this is the second cast of the subject to appear at auction in over 40 years, with an estimate of $7-10 million.
A museum-quality piece, Wassily Kandinsky’s Weisses Oval (White Oval) from 1919, will also be sold. This abstract composition was exhibited in several critical early shows of Kandinsky’s work, including his seminal retrospectives and a 1952 exhibition that traveled to Boston, San Francisco and Cleveland. Acquired by New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1945, it was featured in the museum’s memorial exhibition after Kandinsky’s death in 1944. The work is one of the few pieces he created while still in Russia before teaching at the Bauhaus, and it represents a pivotal moment in the development of his unique visual language. Last seen at auction fifty years ago, it is expected to surpass its estimate of $15-20 million, given its unique provenance.
Additional highlights include a stunning bronze by Henry Moore, Reclining Mother and Child (1975-76), estimated to sell for $8-12 million, and a joyful portrait of a young lady by Henri Matisse, Jeune fille en robe rose (1942), from his Nice period, estimated to sell for $3-5 million. The sale will also feature Yves Klein’s blue sponge relief, Relief Éponge bleu sans titre (RE 28) from 1961, which encapsulates the artist’s philosophical and spiritual narrative (estimated to sell for $8-12 million).
On the design side, the star lot is a special commission Miller requested from celebrated French designer François-Xavier Lalanne: a whimsical gilt bronze octagonal table, Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres Table, featuring seven gilded elephants marching under an African tree. With a high estimate of $6 million, this unique piece secured through the renowned architect Peter Marino is likely to exceed that figure given the high demand for Lalanne’s work and the exclusivity of the commission.
Most of the gems going on the block were housed in Miller’s treasure-filled home in West Palm Beach’s luxurious Bristol building. With her daughter, Stacie Halpern, Miller curated a fascinating mix of art and design, creating aesthetic conversations that spanned centuries, with works from the 18th to the 21st Centuries.
“Part of the power of Sydell Miller’s collection is in how she creatively and harmoniously blended together art and design to create an interior that is both unique and overwhelmingly elegant,” Judy Pollack, Sotheby’s chairman and co-worldwide head of 20th-century design, said in a statement. “The magical dialogues she choreographed between her art and objects bring new life and energy to each work, which is both inspiring and a testament to Sydell’s exquisite taste, originality, and boldness. One will never again see Monet’s Nymphéas alongside Claude Lalanne’s unique Nenuphars Consoles. It is a vision.”
As a tribute to Miller’s philanthropic commitment, a portion of the auction proceeds will benefit the Cleveland Clinic Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Sydell L. Miller Elephant Care & Visitor Center at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Prior to the sale, selections from the collection will be shown in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei and Los Angeles.
