About This Auction

For over 30 years, Leonard ‘Len’ Riggio, the entrepreneurial founder of Barnes & Noble, and his wife Louise amassed a formidable collection of 20th-century art in their hometown of New York. Fueled by the couple’s lifelong pursuit of knowledge and spirit of discovery, Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works presents an anthology of the artists who challenged some of our most established ideas about art, culture and society. From Mondrian’s pioneering approach to abstraction to Picasso’s rebellious portrayal of the human form, the collection is a roll-call of 20th-century masterpieces in dialogue with one another, representing the radical creativity that characterised artmaking over the course of the last 100 years. This May, Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works will be offered in a dedicated evening sale leading our 20th and 21st Century Art auction series.