Sotheby's Auction of Hester Diamond's Magnificent Art Collection Could Fetch More Than $35 Million

When it comes to collecting art, nobody did it with more daring and more gusto than Hester Diamond. The lifelong New Yorker, who was a renowned art collector, art dealer, and interior designer, was known for pairing modern art with antique furniture—and vice versa in her later years—to brilliant effect.

Pieces from her formidable art collection are coming to market January 29 via a Sotheby's auction titled Fearless: The Collection of Hester Diamond Part 1. Several works, including an early Bernini sculpture, are quite rare and could fetch record-breaking sales. The high estimate for all 60 lots, which include contemporary works as well as Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculpture, is more than $35 million.

The sale features pieces of Dimond's collection from the second half of her life, after her first husband, Harold Diamond, died unexpectedly in the 1980s. During their marriage, which began in 1950, the couple amassed a robust collection of modern art that included works by Picasso, Mondrian, and Brancusi—most famously "Bird in Space," the 1926 sculpture by the latter. The Diamonds were known for displaying their impeccable collection alongside their equally noteworthy collection of 19th-century furniture.

But, as her life took a different direction in the years following her husband's death, her collection did as well. Over the next three decades, Diamond assembled a collection of 15th and 16th century Italian and Flemish paintings, Renaissance and Baroque sculpture, and a few contemporary pieces.

Perhaps even more surprising, though not to those who knew her well, Diamond juxtaposed these Old World works with contemporary, even futuristic, furniture in bold pattern and bright color. The result was a dazzling mix of old and new, moody and electric, reflective of the vision, passion, and individualism embodied by Diamond herself.

Even Diamond's initial discovery of art was fueled by a certain fearlessness, when after her high school classes ended in the Bronx for the day, Diamond would venture into Manhattan to peruse its art museums, her favorite being the Museum of Modern Art.

"MoMA was really a very exciting place to be, and that's where I got caught and stuck on art," Diamond said in an interview that appears in the Sotheby's article about the sale. "There was very little to read about modern art at that time, and I would spend a very long time standing in one gallery at MoMA trying to figure it out myself and that actually was the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me at that age."

Sotheby's is selling other items from Diamond's estate, including contemporary furniture, art books, her extensive collection of minerals, and even Beastie Boys memorabilia (her son, Michael Diamond, is founding Beastie Boys member Mike D), via an online auction running from January 22-29.

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