NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's will present Collector/Connoisseur: The Max N. Berry Collections; a sale series spanning a multitude of categories—both auction and private sales—which will take place over the course of months. Sales begin this November in New York's 20/21 Fall Marquee Week, including four important works by Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti in the 20th Century Evening Sale on Monday November 17, 2025.
Acrobats is an exceptional example by Alexander Calder (estimate: $5,000,000-7,000,000), which relates to the circus, among the artist's most celebrated subjects, and is the first wire-figure sculpture by the artist to come to market since 2018. Another highlight by Calder, Untitled (estimate: $1,500,000-2,000,000) is a rare hanging mobile dating to the late 1930s which invokes Calder's adept use of another medium: wood. The Giacometti works in the selection include a bronze, Buste d'homme (Diego) (estimate: $5,000,000-8,000,000) and a painting, Nature morte dans l'atelier (estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000). Together, these stand as exquisite examples of the artist's deeply personal and favorite motifs, the cramped confines of his studio and the dramatic contours of his brother's face.
Max N. Berry remarks: "Collecting many and various objects over a lifetime has given me a unique education and afforded me wonderful insights into history, appreciation of design, craftsmanship and beauty, and marvelous memories. Importantly too, are the friendships I have made over my many decades with fellow collectors, museum directors and curators, dealers and academics. For so many reasons, collecting has been a great experience and rare journey for me as each piece of each collection has been a unique and palpable reward."
The consummate collector, Max N. Berry has assembled an impressively wide-ranging art collection of the highest quality. Max N. Berry is a passionate collector of objects from more than 30 genres, including important fine art from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Chinese antiquities including an important and rare group of Tang-dynasty pottery figures; Judaica; Staffordshire; English furniture; watches; and Americana, including from the whaling industry, toys, mechanical banks and corkscrews; as well as Western and Native American art and crafts. Max N. Berry was born in Cushing, Oklahoma in 1935 and raised in Tulsa. He has had a long career as an attorney in both public service and in private practice. Mr. Berry currently supports more than 80 different nonprofit organizations. As a patron of the arts, Mr. Berry has served in various board-level positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Phillips Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Archives of American Art. In addition, he has served in significant roles in a wide variety of other nonprofits, among them the D.C. International Film Festival, the International Programs Center at the University of Oklahoma, and the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, which he founded.
As Christie's sales of his collection begin, Max N. Berry comments: "Ten years ago, I sold my toy and mechanical bank collection at auction so I have an emotional prequel to the upcoming sale. As before, selling much of my art and Chinese antiquities is, on the one hand, sad because it will mean empty walls and absence of many items of deep interest to me which I have enjoyed for many years. But, at the same time, it will give me pleasure in knowing that other collectors younger than me and various museums will provide their patrons emotional experiences with these pieces that will live on."
Max N. Berry Collection sales will continue with a private selling exhibition of Judaica in December, dedicated sales of a rare, important and large group of American Paintings in January, and Chinese Works of Art that will be included within sales in that category over the next several years at Christie's Rockefeller Center in New York.
