One of their early commissions was transforming a floor of Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship location, where Bill Blass, Pierre Cardin, and other of-the-moment designers showcased their wares. Glamorous homes for the social set—both in the city and farther afield—followed. After Rayner’s death in 1998, Ertegun pressed on with solo design projects, including Walmart heiress Alice Walton’s Park Avenue duplex condo.
Like Ertegun’s vast oeuvre, the Christie’s collection “has sweep,” as Carter puts it, spanning the De Stijl, Surrealism, and Color-Field movements. Vivid paintings by David Hockney, Joan Miró, and Ed Rauscha, for example, mingle with an industrial David Smith sculpture and a glamorous photograph Andy Warhol snapped of Ertegun. There’s also a 19th-century German mahogany secretaire and pair of breezy mid-20th-century bronze palm trees attributed to Maison Jansen that once graced Ertegun’s New York living room, as well as an Ingrid Donat chaise longue that held court in the guest room.
The most coveted of items is sure to be one of René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières nocturnal landscape paintings, estimated at upwards of $95 million. “It is the largest, the most finely painted, the most exquisitely preserved” of Magritte’s series, points out Carter. “It exhausts superlatives. But every object in the collection is just so and has its own special story,” like the Henry Moore sculpture, chosen by Moore specifically for The International Surrealist Exhibition held in London in 1936.
Given that her husband was a music mogul who ignited the careers of such talents as Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin, Ertegun often designed residences for musicians—Carly Simon and Keith Richards among them. This glittering ambience suffused the Erteguns’ personal lives too. They were dinner party fixtures, hobnobbing with luminaries like Oscar de la Renta and Henry Kissinger. But beyond the glitz they were philanthropists, and following Ahmet’s death in 2006, his wife carried on with an atrium for Jazz at Lincoln Center, restoration efforts at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and $41 million toward humanities scholarships at the University of Oxford. It is fitting, then, that a significant portion of proceeds from the sales will go toward charitable initiatives.
The AD archive offers a glimpse into Ertegun’s multifaceted persona through her stunning yet no-nonsense spaces, which she guided with an uncompromising design philosophy. Looking for inspiration for your auction hunting? Try diving into these six timeless tales from our past editions.
