Sotheby's Hedreen Sale Money Will Repay a Loan, Not Fund a Museum

The money from a Sotheby's auction of art from the Richard Hedreen collection will repay a loan, not pay for a new art museum at Seattle University. ArtNews reported the finding on 13 November 2026, citing records reported by The Seattle Times.

The auction house Sotheby's is selling about 50 works from the collection of Seattle developer Richard "Dick" Hedreen. The sales are expected to bring in at least US$100 million across a series of auctions. The collection is named for Hedreen and his late wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Petri Hedreen, a Seattle University alumna.

Seattle University had announced that Hedreen had given the collection, valued at US$300 million, along with US$25 million in seed funding (start-up money) for a museum. The arrangement was different. The US$300 million was a pledge, and Hedreen kept the right to buy and sell works until the gift was finalised.

The US$25 million came from a private sale, a deal made directly with a buyer rather than at public auction. A de Kooning painting sold for US$17 million in that deal. The painting had been estimated in 2024 at US$25 million, meaning the auction house's expected price range before a sale.

The collection's debts go back more than a decade. In 2012, Hedreen pledged works by Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning and David Hockney as collateral, meaning security a lender can claim if a loan is not repaid. The lender was the US investment bank Goldman Sachs. In 2025, that financing was replaced by a loan from the US bank Bank of America, secured by about 44 major artworks.

David Thyer, president of R.C. Hedreen Co., said income from the company's properties is not enough to repay the loan in any reasonably foreseeable time frame. He linked the problem to pressures in the hotel and real estate markets.

The sale's leading lot is Roy Lichtenstein's Reflections on "Painter and Model" (1990). A lot is a single item offered at auction. Sotheby's estimates it will sell for between US$20 million and US$30 million. The final hammer price, the bid the auctioneer closes on before fees, is set on the day of the sale. Buyers pay a premium on top of that figure.

Each sale in the series will show what the works actually bring in, and the results will determine how much of the loan is paid down.