Sotheby’s said Thursday that it has purchased the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1966 Brutalist building by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue and will move its headquarters there from York Avenue in 2025.
The deal — which Sotheby’s and the Whitney refused to confirm in response to queries from The Times in April — finally resolves the fate of the Breuer building, which has hung in the balance since the Whitney moved down to the meatpacking district in 2015.
— The New York Times
The auction house will operate a rotating exhibition space out of the building — in addition to hosting live auctions — beginning in September 2024. There are no plans for the subterranean level restaurant at this time. The Frick Collection, which has been leasing the building since the Met walked away in March of 2020, will officially move back into its $160 million Selldorf Architects-renovated original East 70th Street location in the months prior.
The New York Times reported a source mentioning the deal, which was brokered between the current landlords Whitney Museum and Sotheby's, was worth approximately $100 million. Sotheby's CEO Charles F. Stewart explained to the paper that it was simply a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we couldn’t pass up."
6 Comments
Wow, what a deal at 100 million! Aren't there residential properties more than that in the neighborhood? Maybe it comes with some hard-to-break preservationist stipulations. Or, am I daydreaming?
A lot of the paintings they sell go for more than that. . . .
Still a shame. Better than a sports center, I guess. If it doesn't work out, Sotheby's can auction it off.
Not sure how one could retrofit it to another use but it's a cool building. Maybe it could be opened from inside with a glass atrium and a zen garden inside. Maybe it could be an event space but I hope they save it as it is from the outside.
As long as DS&R, OMA, or somebody is not hired to "reimagine" Breuer's work into a debased mess, I guess I'm ok with this sale.
I have no faith in the ability or willingness of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect the building.
sad, but at least they will probably preserve it being who they are. As a young kid this was one of the buildings that made me interested in architecture.
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