Highly Regarded Goetz Art Cache Going on Block

An important Los Angeles collection of Impressionist and modern art, owned by a celebrated Hollywood couple but long hidden from public view, will go on the auction block Nov. 14 at Christie’s New York. The sale of 28 artworks, collected in the 1940s by the late William and Edith Mayer Goetz, is expected to bring at least $50 million.

The auction house has billed the little-known cache as “one of America’s great private collections of Impressionist art.” It belonged to producer Goetz and his wife, the daughter of film executive Louis B. Mayer.

Containing a work from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period and canvases by such major artists as Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard and Paul Cezanne, the Goetz collection would have been a spectacular addition to many museums. But after their mother’s death in June, the Goetzes’ daughters--Judith Shepherd of Beverly Hills and Barbara Windom of Malibu--decided to sell the artworks.

Though the collection has been known to art world insiders for many years, no museum had successfully courted the family. “It was not a collection we were expecting to receive as a gift,” said Pam Jenkinson, press officer for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The Goetz collection was last on public view in 1959 at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Sixteen pieces from the collection were sold for a total of $2.7 million by Sotheby’s in 1970, and the daughters are keeping some of the pieces.

The paintings to be auctioned--but not a fragile Edgar Degas sculpture--will go on an international tour prior to the November sale. Exhibitions are scheduled for Tokyo, Zurich, London, New York, and a Beverly Hills stop is scheduled Sept. 27 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

If the sale lives up to Christie’s expectations, it will certainly be one of the jewels of the fall auction season in New York.

Picasso’s 1901 canvas “Maternite” is expected to bring the top price of about $10 million, according to Christie’s. The painting, from the artist’s popular Blue Period, is a tender mother-and-son picture. A seated woman, draped in a deep blue cloak, leans over to kiss her young son in a formally arranged setting.

Another Picasso, a 1929 portrait of the artist’s son Paul dressed as a harlequin, is estimated to fetch about $5 million. Picasso originally gave this work to a doctor who saved the boy’s thumb after an accident.

Another high-ticket item is a bronze sculpture of a ballet dancer by Degas, estimated to bring between $8 million and $10 million. The polychromed figure, standing with her hands clasped behind her back, wears a net tutu and satin hair ribbon.

Having a heyday with seven-figure prices, Christie’s experts have put a $5-million to $7-million estimate on Monet’s 1870 painting of figures on a wind - swept beach. Said to be “a superb example of Monet’s early maturity,” the canvas shows the influence of his work with Eugene Boudin and Dutch artist Johan Barthold Jongkind.

Among other highlights of the sale are “Apres le Repas,” a large painting of a woman at a table by Bonnard ($2.5 million to $3.5 million) and Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 portrait of Lunia Czechowska ($2 million to $3 million).

The Goetzes were well-known in Los Angeles’ entertainment industry circles during Hollywood’s golden years. Their marriage in 1930 at the Biltmore Hotel is said to have been a stunning social event, in the lavish style of major Hollywood productions.

After her marriage, Edith Goetz (1905-1988) soon became known as an elegant hostess. The star-studded guest lists to her legendary parties included Loretta Young, Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks.

William Goetz (1903-1969) began his film industry career as an associate producer for Fox Films, then moved up the ladder at 20th Century and 20th Century-Fox. He later formed his own company, International Pictures, which merged with Universal Pictures in 1946.

Among the 100 films Goetz produced or supervised are “The Glenn Miller Story,” “Sayonara,” “Jane Eyre” and “Song of Bernadette.”