When Jacques Sarlie found himself in France as a U.S. Army officer at the end of World War II, he had his own ideas about what he wanted to liberate. A Dutch-born U.S. citizen who likes to keep the sources of his wealth a secret, Sarlie struck up an acquaintance with Pablo Picasso, became one of the few men to whom Picasso was willing to sell his paintings directly. Over the next few years, before the modern art market went wild
Sarlie bought Picassos covering the full range of the painter's varied styles, fleshed out his collection with the works of a number of other modern artists, including a portrait painted by Amedeo Modigliani in payment for back rent.
Last week Collector Sarlie, 45, put his collection up for auction at London's famed Sotheby's to raise money, partly to finance his Manhattan foundation to aid promising young artists. The Modigliani portrait went for $106,000, but the main attraction of the evening was Sarlie's 29 Picassos—the largest number ever put on the block at one time. Highest price for a single canvas was the $134,000 paid by Swedish Collector Carl-Bertel Nathhorst for Femme Accroupie, a somber painting of Picasso's "blue" period. And by evening's end, Sotheby's had broken another record: the Picassos brought in $636,720, the biggest single sale of a living artist. Between the Picassos, ten Modiglianis and an assortment of Crises, Soutines, Braques, Rouaults and one Matisse, Collector Sarlie netted more than $1,000,000. What did he intend to start buying now? A tip from the top: Abstractionists Hartung, Soulages, De Stae'l.