Sotheby’s to Auction Texas Heiress Anne Marion’s Collection This Spring, Including Rare Works from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein

It’s a widely known fact that Fort Worth has one of the best museum districts in Texas. But a driving force behind the city’s notable art prowess is perhaps less recognized. Anne Marion was an oil heiress, philanthropist, and prominent Texas rancher, but she was also an avid art collector who donated hundreds of 20th century works and helped spearhead the $65 million expansion of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Marion was also notoriously private. Her Fort Worth home, the first private residence designed by I.M.Pei (the architect behind the Louvre Pyramid in Paris), concealed a treasure trove of prized pieces that few have knowledge of. However, with today’s announcement that Sotheby’s will be auctioning art and jewelry from the heiress’ estate beginning this May (the art patron, who was married to retired Sotheby’s chairman and famed auctioneer John Marion, passed away from lung cancer in February of 2020), all will soon be revealed.

“Anne had a keen eye and a sense for picking winners, not only in business, but in her collecting,” a Sotheby’s team member recalls in a release about the legendary Texan, a rare woman managing an oil and ranching business, as well as a fierce pioneer for ranching industry employment (Marion was one of the first to provide her staff with health insurance and retirement plans).

Notable works up for auction this spring include Girl With Beach Ball II by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis,” based on a publicity still from the 1960 film “Flaming Star” in which Presley played a rancher. Also available will be a work from Clyfford Still, often credited for ushering in the arrival of American Abstraction. Still’s PH-125 (1948-No. 1) is expected to achieve $25 to $30 million. Other great 20th century American artists in Marion’s collection include Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.

Marino Marini’s bronze Rider sculpture (estimated to achieve $2 to $3 million) is sourced from the estate of Marion’s grandmother Olive Lake. Naturally, a piece by an artist in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Modernist circle will also make an appearance: Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No. 40. One of the most notable of Marion’s contributions to the arts scene was her help founding the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe in 1997.

Understandably, a noticeable through line in Marion’s collection is a connection with ranching and the land in which the late legendary Texan, the fourth-generation guiding force behind Four Sixes Ranch, was so deeply rooted.