Nina Slavcheva/CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2024
A forthcoming, and highly anticipated, Christie’s auction will not only spotlight the precious art and objects of the late Mica Ertegun — but it will also turn eyes towards one of the jewel box homes the interior designer, philanthropist and prolific collector called her own.
As the famed auction house prepares for the multi-part “Mica: The Collection of Mica Ertegun” sale set to begin on Nov. 19 in New York — a deep-pocketed house hunter can also consider buying the Hamptons property she shared with her husband Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, who pre-deceased her by almost exactly 17 years.
At 623 Halsey Neck Lane in Southampton, this mansion — one of four the couple owned around the world — is for sale asking $52 million. It initially listed for the first time ever in March, nearly 35 years after the pair designed and built it. And, of the 636 total lots in the sale — including works of art, antique furnishings and china — roughly 230 come from inside the walls of this East End escape. Overall, the collection is estimated to exceed $144 million in sales, with a significant portion of the proceeds to head to philanthropic causes.
The 11,000-square-foot estate, on 5.5 acres, features 10 bedrooms, 13.5 bathrooms and rooms with grand proportions. Its architecture is accented by a soaring pyramid-vaulted ceiling in the living room and a grand Palladian layout. It also features a staff wing and 450 feet of water frontage.
As Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group, the real estate broker handling the listing, told The Post, “Given its wide frontage on Taylor Creek and facing a conservation property once owned by the DuPont family, it holds historical significance intertwined with the legacy of Southampton.” (The DuPonts were known for their fortune in the gunpowder industry.)
“These are sort of old-world, old-money names that were part of the history of Southampton in general. So to that, it has its own interest and the home itself is quite impressive,” he added.
Despite the residence having been meticulously maintained during the couple’s ownership, it now stands empty as a blank canvas, ready for a new vision, with its contents emptied due to upcoming auction — whose dates extend into December.
“They’ve been the only owners. I was sort of dreading this house being empty of furniture,” Davis said. “In a way now, one can view the space and be part of that space and imagine themselves being there in their own way — without feeling like they need to honor what was once there.”
The auction itself will present a prime opportunity to own works that once graced the halls of the Erteguns’ residences in New York, Paris and, yes, Southampton. (Their New York townhouse, at 121-125 E. 81st St., sold in October for $9.3 million, The Post reported, with the proceeds of the deal going to the late couple’s charity.)
Mica passed away last December at the age of 97 at the Southampton home. In December 2006, Ahmet died at the age of 83, as a result of a brain injury suffered when he fell backstage at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan two months earlier.
Ahmet, who hailed from Turkey, was instrumental in launching the careers of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones, among others.
The couple’s life was a whirlwind of culture, music and high society, hosting soirées that brought together a constellation of luminaries — from Jacqueline Onassis and Andy Warhol to Mick Jagger and Henry Kissinger. And while far from ordinary, it was by no means picture-perfect. Throughout their 45-year marriage, Ahmet had multiple affairs, which Mica knew of.
“I never minded, because I knew it wasn’t against me,” she once told Vanity Fair. “I knew I was the best thing in his life.”
Max Carter, vice chairman covering 20th- and 21st-century art at Christie’s, and who is overseeing the art aspect of the auction, described the sale’s collection as “a reflection of Mica’s extraordinary taste and worldliness.”
Mica was celebrated for her ability to blend various artistic and cultural elements into harmonious interiors throughout her homes. Among the most standout pieces at the auction is a René Magritte painting from the “L’Empire des Lumières” series, valued at more than $95 million, which had pride of place in the Manhattan townhouse. (It briefly made an appearance at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton in 1979.) The collection from the Southampton property also includes works by Joan Miró, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha.
Certain items up for grabs include fittings kept inside the Southampton mansion’s dining room, such as paintings by the Swiss-American artist Fritz Glarner and the French abstract master Jean Hélion.
Two of the paintings by Glarner are expected to fetch up to $370,000, with two paintings by Hélion to fetch up to $850,000. There’s also a vibrant work by the German-American artist Hans Hofmann, called “Evening Blue,” which was prominently displayed in the dining room and is estimated to get $400,000 to $600,000.
Still, one work from this Hamptons home in particular stands out.
“The Hockney is really the one. It is a painting of [the famed art historian Douglas Cooper’s] … residence in the south of France, [where] Picasso painted a mural on the outside,” Carter said. “And there are three empty chairs in this scene. It has been variously suggested that the three chairs are Cooper, Hockney and Picasso interacting with one another. Mica lent it to the Met Museum and the Tate in the late ’80s. So it has been [in] the public, but mostly it’s been tucked away at her place in Southampton.”
Carter estimates this Hockney work to sell for anywhere between $4 to $6 million.
Mica, overall, was a legend of design whose interiors, steeped in European and Middle Eastern influences, resonated with warmth and sophistication.
“Her home is extraordinary,” Carter said of the Southampton property. “This is someone for whom every little detail mattered,” and those details also include an Edgar Degas sculpture, interwar European paintings and 19th-century bronzes. “But the one thing that unites all of these things is … the exquisite sense of taste and harmony,” he said.
(That Edgar Degas sculpture, an original wax bronze statue that took 15 years to execute, is estimated to go for between $100,000 to $150,000.)
Charles Cator, deputy chairman of Christie’s and a furniture historian who is overseeing the furniture portion of the auction, recounted the charm of Mica’s general furnishing choices. They included Russian and Central European pieces, English mahogany furniture from 1825 to 1850, Victorian-era fittings and a Turkish air.
“There’s an exotic feel, but in a very charming way,” he said, emphasizing that the house, as a whole, was a reflection of Mica’s personal style. “It’s restrained, but it’s generous. And these old pieces sort of reflect that.”
And a number of these old pieces, as the sale progresses, will be in loving new hands. A porcelain dinner service set from 19th-century France is estimated to go for up to $8,000. Furnishings include a late 19th-century group of bamboo items — such as a three-panel privacy screen, a chair and a table — in Mica’s collection that could sell for up to $800.
Mica’s journey, however, began far from the glittering lights of New York’s social circles.
Born in Romania as Ioana Maria Banu, she fled communist turmoil and built a life from modest beginnings, even working on a chicken farm in Canada before meeting Ahmet and marrying him in 1961.
Mica’s talent in design led her to co-found the firm MAC II, with her friend and socialite, Chessy Raynor. Their client list included Keith Richards, Michael Eisner and Jimmy Buffett; they carefully decorated and transformed their homes.
The Erteguns’ property in Southampton still encapsulates their shared values and love for the arts.
As Cator noted, “I felt immediately sad that [Mica] wasn’t there when I visited, but it felt warm and generous and very welcoming. The items there carried the spirit of a life well-lived and embraced. And I hope that spirit we can convey that to prospective buyers.”