Clive Davis's Art Collection — Including Warhol and Hockney — Heads to Christie's

The music mogul Clive Davis is parting with a collection of paintings by Andy Warhol, David Hockney and others that Christie's expects to sell for more than US$35 million.

Christie's announced "The Clive Davis Collection" on 8 September 2026, describing a group of works that has been largely unseen by the public until now. The sale spans Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism alongside Pop Art heavyweights Warhol and Hockney, according to Christie's own event listing. A Warhol work in the collection carries an estimate of US$2 million to US$3 million, the auction house said in its press release.

Davis, now in his nineties, built his reputation as one of the most influential figures in the American music industry — the man who signed and shaped careers at Columbia, Arista and J Records. His eye for visual art ran in parallel, quietly, over decades. The collection has never been exhibited publicly, the Los Angeles Times reported.

What makes this stand out is the scale of the offering against the near-total absence of prior visibility. Collectors who buy and hold privately for decades sometimes surface a handful of pieces at auction; an entire collection crossing eight figures is rarer. The figure Christie's attached to the sale — in excess of US$35 million — places it among the more valuable single-owner collections to reach the market this year.

The auction house published details on its press site, framing the sale around Davis's collecting sensibility rather than any single trophy lot. Beyond the Warhol carrying the US$2-to-3-million estimate, Christie's has not yet released individual lot breakdowns for the Hockney or the Expressionist and Neo-Expressionist works. Those details typically follow in the weeks before a sale, as the full catalogue is finalised.

ARTnews first reported the Warhol and Hockney paintings were heading to Christie's, with the auction house confirming the sale the same day.

For anyone who has followed Davis's career, the auction offers a different kind of reveal: not a new artist or a comeback single, but the walls of a collector who spent a lifetime listening first and looking second. The works go on view ahead of the sale, though Christie's has not yet announced dates or locations for the public exhibition.