{"id":2104045,"date":"2026-08-19T20:06:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104045"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:06:38","slug":"bonhams-to-sell-sandy-lerner-cat-themed-collection-of-art-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2104045","title":{"rendered":"Bonhams to sell Sandy Lerner cat-themed collection of art and design"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Chat-et-Chaton-executed-in-1934-by-Leonard-Tsuguharu-Foujita-1886\u20131968-estimated-at-30000-\u2013-50000.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe cat\u2019s out of the bag. This September and October, Bonhams is selling items from one of the most extensive private collections of cat-related artworks, decorative objects, jewelry, and collectibles: the Sandy Lerner Cat Collection. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn all, Sandy Lerner, co-founder of tech company Cisco Systems and founder of cosmetics label Urban Decay, is parting with nearly 1,000 lots spanning centuries from her Ayrshire Farm estate in Virginia. Not all are feline-focused, however.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fall sale of the Sandy Lerner Collection will take place in four parts in New York and Massachusetts, with two of the four auctions highlighting Lerner\u2019s more than 40-year passion for collecting objects featuring cats in some form, which she calls \u201ccaticons.\u201d One will be hosted live at Bonhams New York on September 30th and will include 66 items, and the second will run online September 22 through October 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tLerner wrote about her cat obsession in a book titled Caticons: 4,000 Years of Art Imitating Cats<\/em> (2017) and attributes her idea for creating the collection to being \u201cforced to be catless,\u201d due to her then-husband\u2019s allergies. In a statement, Lerner said she had personally chosen every object in the collection, but \u201cthey need to be rehomed, now, to others who will care for, cherish, and respect them as icons of the human achievement and \u2013 in the case of the caticons \u2013 affection that created them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHighlights include Chat et Chaton<\/em> (1934) by Japanese-French artist L\u00e9onard Tsuguharu Foujita, estimated at $30,000-$50,000; Visages et grenades<\/em> (circa 1952) by Henri Matisse, estimated at $10,000 \u2013 $15,000; and T\u00eate de Chat<\/em> (circa 1970) by Diego Giacometti, estimated at $20,000 \u2013 $30,000. Additional artists and designers represented include Rembrandt Bugatti, Edouard Manet, Theophile Alexandre Steinlen, Fernando Botero, and Henriette Ronner-Knip, to name a few.<\/p>\n

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The Sandy Lerner Cat Collection. Courtesy of Bonhams.\u00a0<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tFeline-fashioned jewelry will also be up for grabs at the September live auction, including creations by Tiffany & Co and Boucheron. Plus, Asian art and decorative objects dating to the Qing Dynasty (1730-1850) are among the anticipated highlights.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor those on team dog, or who simply don\u2019t count themselves among feline fans, the other two auctions, held live in Massachusetts and online in October, will include furniture, paintings, and decorative arts outside the cat theme. They span centuries of European and British art and design and come from Lerner\u2019s Georgian Revival estate in Upperville, Virginia. That said, Lerner\u2019s love for animals will once again be on full display in many items on offer, which depict wildlife. They include Walter Hunt\u2019s Feeding Time<\/em> (1890), estimated at $25,000-$35,000, and a pair of silver-gilt swan jardinieres by C.J. Vander, estimated at $10,000 \u2013 $20,000, to name a few.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/sandy-lerner-cat-themed-art-collection-auctioned-bonhams-1234795289\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Chat-et-Chaton-executed-in-1934-by-Leonard-Tsuguharu-Foujita-1886\u20131968-estimated-at-30000-\u2013-50000.jpg?w=1024″] The cat\u2019s out of the bag. This September and October, Bonhams is selling items from one of the most extensive private collections of cat-related artworks, decorative objects, jewelry, and collectibles: the Sandy Lerner Cat Collection. In all, Sandy Lerner, co-founder of tech company Cisco Systems and founder of cosmetics label Urban Decay, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2104045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}