Prominent art collectors Anita and Poju Zabludowicz are preparing to part with a significant portion of their collection, with 106 works expected to fetch around £15 million ($20 million) at a pair of Christie’s sales in London next month. The auction house will offer the collection through a live evening sale on June 25, followed by an online auction.
Leading the sale is Mirror Head (1977), a major painting by American artist Philip Guston, carrying an estimate of up to £5.5 million ($7.4 million). The auction will also feature works by contemporary art stars including Beatriz Milhazes, Rose Wylie, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami, Henry Taylor, and Charline von Heyl.
For decades, the Zabludowiczes ranked among Europe’s most influential collectors. Their London-based private museum became an important platform for emerging contemporary artists after opening in 2007. However, in 2023 the couple closed the institution, announcing a shift away from maintaining permanent exhibition spaces. Their foundation stated that it would continue operating from Sarvisalo, Finland, while focusing increasingly on lending artworks to museums and exhibitions worldwide.
The closure coincided with growing criticism directed at the collectors over alleged connections to pro-Israel organizations and business interests linked to the Tamares Group, the investment company chaired by Poju Zabludowicz. Debate surrounding the family had intensified even before the outbreak of the Gaza war, with a number of artists withdrawing authorization for their works to be exhibited in the Zabludowicz collection. The artists argued that they could not separate the collection from what they viewed as support for Israeli government policies.
Following the escalation of the conflict in Gaza, criticism became more visible within the Nordic art world. Several Finnish artists boycotted exhibitions at Helsinki’s contemporary art museum Kiasma after learning of the institution’s previous financial ties to the collectors. The museum subsequently distanced itself from the Zabludowicz family.
Later that year, Anita and Poju Zabludowicz publicly addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a statement, they expressed support for a two-state solution and called for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, while mourning civilian casualties on both sides.
Responding to renewed scrutiny ahead of the Christie’s sale, a spokesperson for the family recently stated that the majority of the Tamares Group’s investments are located in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Finland, with only a small percentage in Israel. The spokesperson further said that the company has no investments in West Bank settlements or military-related enterprises.
Christie’s has focused its attention on the quality and importance of the artworks being offered and has declined to comment publicly on the controversy surrounding the collection.
The auction will test not only the market’s appetite for blue-chip contemporary art but also whether collectors remain willing to separate artistic value from the political debates that increasingly surround major private collections.
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