The Phillips Collection will proceed with plans to sell major works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Georges Seurat at Sotheby’s next week, a move that has triggered sharp backlash from former curators, members of the Phillips family, and a faction of the museum’s governing members board.
According to The Washington Post, the works—long considered central to founder Duncan Phillips’s vision—will be offered at Sotheby’s on November 20 as part of the auction house’s marquee evening sales at its newly opened headquarters in the Breuer building on Madison Avenue. From the lot, O’Keeffe’s Large Dark Red Leaves on White (1925) carries an estimate of $6 million to $8 million, Seurat’s conté crayon drawing is priced between $3 million and $5 million, and Dove’s Rose and Locust Stump(1943) is expected to fetch $1.2 million to $1.8 million.
Related Articles
Director and CEO Jonathan Binstock, who joined the Phillips in March 2023, said proceeds will fund a permanently restricted endowment to commission new work by living artists. The strategy, he argued, aligns with Duncan Phillips’s belief in supporting contemporary practitioners—including his decades-long financial support of Dove.
But critics warn the sales will dismantle carefully built “units” of key artists assembled by Duncan and Marjorie Phillips. “I’m deeply saddened and appalled,” said Eliza Rathbone, the museum’s chief curator emerita. Liza Phillips, the founders’ granddaughter and chair of the members board, said the works “belong to the public” and will likely “go into private hands.”
The dispute, simmering for more than 18 months, culminated last week in an agreement between the trustees and members boards that allows next week’s sales to move forward, but tightens future deaccessioning rules. The core collection will now be defined by The Phillips Collection: A Summary Catalogue (1985), a far more comprehensive publication than the museum’s previous benchmark, The Eye of Duncan Phillips (1999). Works listed in the 1985 catalogue cannot be sold “without special exception.”
The upcoming auctions extend beyond the headline works. Sotheby’s will also offer pieces from the Phillips by Anish Kapoor, Leland Bell, and Howard Mehring on November 19, and a Henri Fantin-Latour still life on November 21. A Picasso sculpture and a Milton Avery work on paper will appear in later sales.
The controversy unfolds amid broader national debates on deaccessioning. While long governed by strict norms from groups like the Association of Art Museum Directors, the practice has accelerated in recent years as museums confront financial pressures and shifting priorities. The Whitney Museum of American Art, for example, sold Edward Hopper and Maurice Prendergast works in 2023 to deepen holdings of contemporary American artists—moves that sparked criticism but remained within AAMD guidelines. Other institutions, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and SFMOMA, have faced intense scrutiny for attempts to sell major works to diversify their collections or bolster endowments.
Proponents argue deaccessioning is a necessary tool to keep collections relevant. “We want to grow the collection,” Whitney curator Jane Panetta told ARTnews last year, describing sales as essential to closing historical gaps. Museums such as MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum have likewise sold blue-chip works to fund acquisitions or collection care under pandemic-era rule changes.
Opponents counter that selling foundational works violates public trust and risks sanctions. Critics of the Phillips plan argue the institution is parting with masterworks beloved by Duncan Phillips himself. Rathbone noted that, since the founders’ tenure, “no one has ever suggested deaccessioning masterworks acquired by Duncan Phillips.”
Binstock maintains the Phillips must evolve. Calling the museum “an institution in its adolescence,” he said expanding the representation of living artists is crucial to welcoming wider audiences. Duncan Phillips, he argued, “did not imagine the museum as trapped in amber.”
Still, some supporters question why fundraising was not pursued more aggressively. “We never imagined this,” said Liza Phillips.
The O’Keeffe, Seurat, and Dove will test whether the Phillips’s gamble on future-focused collecting can withstand the emotional and institutional weight of parting with its past.