Lehman Brothers Art Auction at Freeman's Auctioneers - WSJ.com

When Lehman Brothers, with its 158-year history as a pillar of finance, vaporized in a bankruptcy filing last year, one asset it left behind was its art collection.Assembled over many years, it's a wide-ranging selection of works, including signed prints from big names like Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois and Roy Lichtenstein, along with others from lesser-known artists.When the collection hits the auction block on Sunday in Philadelphia, proceeds will go to pay creditors, but they won't be throwing any ticker tape parades about being made whole. Like so much else about the Lehman legacy, the collection turns out not to be worth much. Freeman's Auctioneers & Appraisers estimates that the 283 lots for sale are worth about $750,000 in total.Lehman has some artistic background. Its former and final CEO, Richard Fuld and his wife, Kathy, were known as avid art collectors. Mrs. Fuld sits on the board of trustees at New York's Museum of Modern Art. In November 2008, the couple auctioned 16 postwar drawings from their personal collection at Christie's, including pieces by Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. The sale fetched $13.5 million, less than the auction house's pre-sale estimate of $15 million, but certainly not shabby.