The Collector: Robert and Ethel Scull
Authors: Tobias Czudej, Susan McDonough
15 August 2025
On October 18, 1973, the couple sold 50 works from their personal collection at Sotheby Parke Bernet, in an auction that brought in $2.2 million, breaking records for contemporary American art and heralding an increasingly commercialized art market. The infamous event brought renewed attention to contemporary art as a potentially lucrative investment and sparked discussion of artist resale rights. Works by the largely unknown Jasper Johns set five different auction records. A pair of cylinders painted to look like beer cans, “Painted Bronze,” sold for $90,000, establishing a new auction record for sculpture by a living American artist. Claes Oldenburg's “The Stove,” at $45,000, had held the record since 1970.
Prior to the sale, the Sculls (who divorced in 1975) lived alongside these masterpieces in their New York City apartment at 1010 Fifth Avenue. Barnett Newman’s “White Fire II” and Willem de Kooning’s “Police Gazette” were among the works shown below that were included in the 1973 sale.
Image: The entryway of the Scull home featured a George Segal sculpture of curator and critic Henry Geldzahler, Robert Indiana's "The Demuth Five" (1963), Morris Louis' "Prophecy" (1961), and Claes Oldenburg's "The Stove" (1962).
Authors: Tobias Czudej, Susan McDonough
15 August 2025
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