Greta Garbo’s paintings included in forthcoming Christie’s auction

Hollywood icon Greta Garbo’s colorful co-op at the ultra-exclusive Campanile hit the market last week ($6 million, all cash) and now, a trio of paintings belonging to the late actress that hung in the Riverside apartment is slated for auction at Christie’s. They will be a part of the auction house’s May 15 Impressionist and Modern evening sale.

The three canvases on offer: Chaïm Soutine’s Femme à la poupée, 1923 to 1924 (expected to go for between $3.5 and $4.5 million); Alexej von Jawlensky’s Das blasse Mädchen mit Grauen Zopfen, 1916 (estimate: $1 to $1.5 million); and Robert Delaunay’s La femme à l’ombrelle ou La Parisienne, 1913 ($4 to $7 million, or roughly the price of the apartment). All three works “exemplify Garbo’s sophisticated taste and proclivity for dazzling color,” boasts a press release.

Garbo’s grand-niece, Gray Reisfield Horan, recalls her aunt spending evenings in front of her collection, “enjoying her evening scotch and a Nat Sherman cigarettello... held so elegantly with her gemstone-encrusted Van Cleef & Arpels holder.” Apparently, she was particularly enraptured by Delaunay’s La femme à l’ombrelle (it’s always the expensive ones). “It makes a dour Swede happy,” she’d say of the painting, gem-encrusted cigarettello holder in hand.

Christie’s Images Ltd. 2017

Christie’s Images Ltd. 2017

Christie’s Images Ltd. 2017

• Greta Garbo's Midtown East apartment is for sale, asking $5.95M [Curbed NY]