A dizzingly-expensive art collection that belonged to a cosmetics heir and his Maine widow is expected to fetch a half-billion dollars.
The artwork, to be auctioned November 18th, belongs to the estate of cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder and widow Judy Glickman Lauder of Cape Elizabeth.
Glickman, widow of Al Glickman of Cape Elizabeth, married Lauder in 2015 after her husband died.
Lauder, her second husband, died five months ago at age 92, leaving the art collection now being sold off.
He was estimated to be worth some $10 billion at the time of his death, and had one of America’s most important art collections.
The cosmetics tycoon lived part time in Cape Elizabeth with his second wife.
“He loved Maine,” his stepdaughter, Tigraw Glickman said after Lauder died. “He just wanted to be here as much as possible.”
Lauder was the oldest son of Estée Lauder, who founded her namesake company in 1946.
He joined the business in 1958 and played a key role in growing it from a handful of products sold in U.S. stores to a global giant with multiple brands.
But his business dealings were not his only passion. The New York Times described Lauder as one of America’s most influential philanthropists and art patrons.
Lauder’s first connection to Maine was through Al Glickman, a successful Cape Elizabeth businessman and his friend of decades. They skied together in Colorado in the winters and spent time on the water in Maine in the summers.
When Glickman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Lauder continued to visit him in Maine regularly.
When Glickman died in 2013, Lauder delivered a eulogy at his funeral in Portland, later marrying Glickman’s widow.
Lauder and his second wife, an honorary board member at the Portland Museum of Art, donated $5 million to the organization in 2016.
He collected art ranging from tens of thousands of postcards to Picassos.
“Even New York’s jaded art world is in a tizzy about Leonard Lauder’s collection coming on the market next week,” the New York Post reports.
A portrait by artist Gustav Klimt is expected alone to fetch $150,000,000 at the upcoming auction. Klimt painted the portrait of Austrian Elizabeth Lederer over a three-year period, 1914-1916.
Lederer’s family in Vienna was one of the richest and most influential in that country.
Lederer at one point claimed that Klimt was her father so she could escape death when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
Unlike herself, Klimt was not Jewish so she figured it would be a good cover to help save her life.
