It comes as part of the Barney A. Ebsworth collection which will be sold at a dedicated evening and day sale in New York in November. Ebsworth, a luxury travel magnate, died in April.
The 85-lot consignment of 20th century American art also includes works by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell and Georgia O’Keeffe. Overall, the collection is expected to realise in excess of $300m.
Chop Suey was apparently one of Mr. Ebsworth’s most prized possessions. With its typically Hopperesque cinematic style and undertones of social isolation in the modern city, it has some similarities with the artist’s most famous painting, Nighthawks from 1942 which is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Christie’s will be exhibiting Chop Suey in Hong Kong this autumn at the same time as Nighthawks is traveling to the Shanghai Museum, although whether the auction house can engender bidding from Asian collectors in what has hitherto been a very American market remains to be seen.
However, a retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris 2012-13, which broke attendance records for the location, has helped encourage wider interest.
The current record for Hopper according to Art Sales Index is the $40.5m (including premium for East Wind Over Weehawken from 1934 that sold at Christie's New York in December 2013.
‘Café Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurel)’ by William Glackens – estimated at $250,000-350,000 at Christie’s.
The auction will also include Ebsworth’s first acquisition of American art which he made in 1972: William Glackens’ Café Lafayette (Portrait of Kay Laurel) which is now estimated at $250,000-350,000.
Key works from the collection are currently on show in Paris, and Christie will also be exhibited them in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London as well as New York ahead of the sale.
