Family Law

Nancy Goliger and Bruce Berman's photography collection began in 1991 when the Hollywood couple ? he is chairman and chief executive of Village Roadshow Pictures, she is executive vice president of creative advertising at Paramount Pictures ? commissioned emerging artists to hit the road and take pictures.

?As I was able to afford to, I then began to buy more established, important images that were at the root of photography,? Mr. Berman said.

A selection from the collection ? at last count some 2,600 photographs ? was exhibited last year at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Now, because the couple are divorcing, about 500 works are heading to auction at Christie?s in New York, starting in April. The rest are being given to three Los Angeles museums: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Getty, whose donors have included the couple.

?It wasn?t until about two or three years ago that I realized I was a collector,? said Mr. Berman, who worked with Rose Shoshana, a Los Angeles dealer, to build the collection.

It has not been determined which images will go to which museum. ?I have asked the museums to give me a list of prioritized preferences,? he said. ?Nancy and I want to give them what they want and need.?

The task for the Christie?s experts is how best to sell 500 photographs. ?People tend to think that selling so many photographs floods the market and depresses prices, but auction history indicates just the opposite happens,? said Joshua Holdeman, international director of Christie?s photography department.

Rather than sell them all at once, however, Christie?s plans to hold three different sales: one limited to works by Diane Arbus, in April; another of images by William Eggleston, scheduled for October; and a third offering a selection of photographers ? from Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange to younger artists with less well-known names ? planned for  2009.

Together the three sales are estimated to bring $7 million to $10 million. ?It?s a truly American collection that goes from the Depression era to artists who are alive and working today,? Mr. Holdeman said.

Among the highlights are ?A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday Afternoon in Westchester, N.Y.,? a seminal 1968 Arbus work estimated at $30,000 to $50,000, and ?Los Alamos Portfolio,? 80 prints of Eggleston images taken from 1967 to 1974 and considered his most important work, which carries an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000.

The Evans work includes ?Interior at Biloxi, Mississippi,? a 1945 photograph of a fisherman?s bedroom estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. ?Black Maria,? a 1955 Lange shot of the back of a police van replete with bullet holes, is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000.

?I am surprised that I don?t feel sad,? Mr. Berman said about the collection?s dispersal. ?It?s time to move on.?

From the New York Times.