Christie’s Presents “Birth of the Modern: The Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection”

Published on 10 October2025

Samia Halaby, Gardenia, oil on canvas, 24¼ x 24in. (61.5 x 62cm), painted in 1978. Estimate: £50,000-70,000.

New York, Fall Marquee Week — November 2025

This November, Christie’s New York will unveil one of the most remarkable private collections to reach the market in recent decades: Birth of the Modern: The Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection. Comprising more than seventy works spanning Impressionism, Modernism, and early abstraction, the collection reflects over sixty years of passionate collecting by two extraordinary figures — Ambassador Arnold Saltzman and his wife, Joan. Together they built an unparalleled dialogue between art, humanism, and social vision.

Presented during Fall Marquee Week, with highlights in the 20th Century Evening Sale on 17 November 2025 and the Day and Works on Paper Sales on 18 November, the ensemble is expected to realise over $70 million. It stands as both a survey of twentieth-century artistic innovation and a portrait of a couple whose curiosity and philanthropy shaped cultural institutions across the United States.

At the heart of the collection lies Fernand Léger’s Composition (1914), an iconic work from his revolutionary Contraste de formes series — a turning point that redefined the visual language of Cubism. Once part of Douglas Cooper’s celebrated collection, the painting was acquired by Arnold Saltzman in 1980 and has since remained unseen by the public. The series’ dynamic interplay of volume, structure, and colour marked a definitive step toward pure abstraction, and Composition remains one of its most compelling examples.

Another jewel of the collection is Henri Matisse’s radiant Femme au chapeau fleuri, depicting Henriette Darricarrère, the artist’s favourite model during his Nice period. In this portrait, Matisse orchestrates a symphony of patterns and colour harmonies that encapsulate his search for balance between sensuality and serenity. The Czech painter František Kupka, one of the pioneers of abstract art, is represented by three significant works, including the large canvas Une Pensée and the delicate Autour d’un point, both offering insight into the artist’s spiritual approach to form and motion.

Sculpture also plays a vital role in the Saltzman collection, particularly in Henry Moore’s monumental Reclining Figure: Elbow — a rhythmic and sensual bronze that epitomises the artist’s organic synthesis of landscape and body. The story of how Saltzman acquired the piece has already become legendary: after several personal visits to Moore’s studio in Hertfordshire, and armed with the artist’s favourite Israeli melons, he finally persuaded the sculptor’s Foundation to release the work — a gesture commemorated by Moore’s handwritten note of thanks.

Beyond its artistic calibre, the collection is deeply intertwined with the lives of its collectors. Arnold Saltzman, the son of Russian and Czechoslovak émigrés, graduated from Columbia College at nineteen and went on to lead a distinguished career as an industrialist, diplomat, and philanthropist. He served under three U.S. Presidents, contributed to the drafting of the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and received a Presidential Commendation for his service. He also played a pivotal role in developing cultural and educational institutions, including Columbia University, Hofstra University, and the New York Public Library, and served as founding president of the Nassau County Museum of Art.

His wife, Joan Saltzman, a Barnard College graduate, was equally dedicated to public good. A pioneering activist for social justice, she founded and co-founded numerous community organisations, from the Long Island Women’s Fund to Erase Racism, while championing initiatives for housing and mental health. Together, they established the Joan and Arnold Saltzman Community Services Center at Hofstra University — a lasting expression of their joint commitment to social progress.

Their daughter, Mimi Saltzman, recalls the emotional presence of art in their family home: “For my brothers Robert and Eric, our children, and me, Arnold’s collection figures in every memory of home. His arrival with a new painting felt triumphant. When he stood with me in front of a painting or sculpture, even at a young age, it was a tutorial in aesthetics, intellect, and joy in discovery.”

Christie’s Conor Jordan, Deputy Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, notes that “Arnold Saltzman assembled this art collection with passionate vision. From striking figuration to daring abstraction, the collection traverses artistic movements and boundaries, featuring artists of seventeen different nationalities. It is a vivid testament to the creative revolution that defined early twentieth-century Europe.”

Further highlights in the accompanying Day and Works on Paper Sales include Robert Delaunay’s vibrant divisionist portrait of Jean Metzinger — displayed in the Saltzman home beside Metzinger’s own portrait of Delaunay — as well as a luminous landscape by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, co-founder of Die Brücke, and a rare canvas by Wilhelm Morgener, the German expressionist who died in the First World War at only twenty-six.

The Saltzman Collection is not only a record of taste and vision; it is a chronicle of two intertwined lives shaped by art, philanthropy, and idealism. In unveiling Birth of the Modern, Christie’s invites the public to rediscover these long-hidden masterpieces and to reflect upon the spirit of modernism — a spirit of renewal, experimentation, and belief in human creativity.

Source: Christie’s Press Release, October 2025