«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

By JOANN LOVIGLIO (AP) –

PHILADELPHIA — Even in these trying financial times, you're not going to see many going-out-of-business sales like this one.
On Sunday, hundreds of works from the art collection of failed banking giant Lehman Brothers will go on the auction block at Freeman's auction house in Philadelphia. The 200-plus pieces of modern and contemporary art up for bid once lined the corridors and graced the board rooms of Lehman's offices in New York, Boston and Wilmington, Del. Highlights of Sunday's sale include prints by Claes Oldenburg, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein.
Anne Henry, vice president of the 204-year-old auction house, valued the collection at $500,000 to $750,000. There is no reserve price on most of the art, save for about a dozen pieces estimated at $10,000 and up. "Our phones have been ringing off the hook," she said. "The pieces are interesting, in great condition and appeal to all kinds of collectors."