Anne Bass was known for her impeccable taste—and now, the world will get a closer look at it. Next month, Christie’s will auction the late philanthropist’s private art collection, drawn from her Westover Hills mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. The sale offers a rare glimpse into the refined world of one of America’s most beloved arts patrons.
The auction, titled Art from the Bass House, is set to present May 12 to 15 at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries in New York City. This single-owner evening sale, part of Christie’s Marquee Week of 20th and 21st Century Art, will feature 19 works from the Bass’s iconic Bass House, with total estimates exceeding $60 million.
Completed in the 1970s, the Bass House in Fort Worth, Texas, is a masterwork of late Modernist residential design. Conceived by architect Paul Rudolph for Sid and Anne Bass (who spent a full year drafting a letter to ask him), the home was built to showcase the couple’s growing art collection, with soaring walls, strategically placed skylights, and a flowing, gallery-like layout that blurs the line between architecture and exhibition space. Surrounded by gardens designed by Robert Zion and Russell Page, the house became not just a private residence but a quiet monument to the Bass’s passion for art, design, and landscape.
“Anne and Sid Bass stand among the world’s most formidable and influential art collectors, combining exquisite taste with the highest level of connoisseurship,” Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “The fantastic home they built together in Fort Worth, Texas in the early 1970s was a singular representation of their combined vision—built to perfectly showcase their inimitable collection.”
The top lot from the house is Mark Rothko’s No. 4 (Two Dominants) (Orange, Plum, Black), which the auction house estimates will sell for about $35 million. It was displayed near Frank Stella’s Itata from the artist’s Notched-V series (estimated to go for $6 to $8 million). Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Black Red, which hung in the playroom, is the third-highest lot, estimated to go for $4 to $6 million.
A champion of the New York City Ballet, Anne’s favorite piece, Danseuse by Gino Severini (estimated to fetch $1.5 to $2.5 million), is also listed. The colorful Futurist oil painting was placed in the library by her desk.
Anne, who passed away in 2020, also owned a grand floor at 960 Fifth Avenue, which sold for $53.5 million in January. Three years earlier, in 2022, Christie’s auctioned off the art from her collection for a record-breaking total of $363 million. The sale included standout pieces such as two Rothkos, Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, and Monet’s Le Parlement, among other masterpieces.
For the upcoming auction, Christie’s will exhibit highlights from the collection in London (April 5–8) and Hong Kong (April 20–21), before the full exhibition in New York leading up to the May 12 auction.
Rachel Silva is the associate digital editor at ELLE DECOR, where she covers all things design, architecture, and lifestyle. She also oversees the publication’s feature article coverage, and is, at any moment, knee-deep in an investigation on everything from the best spa gifts to the best faux florals on the internet right now. She has more than 16 years of experience in editorial, working as a photo assignment editor at Time and acting as the president of Women in Media in NYC. She went to Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for awards from ASME, the Society of Publication Designers, and World Press Photo.
