![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/web-Screen-Shot-2021-03-04-at-2.36.35-PM-copy.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>Born in 1930 in Milwaukee, Seeger grew interested in art early on. His maternal grandfather had made his fortune in the timber and oil businesses, and Seeger\u2019s family had grown rich because of it. While he was studying musical composition at Princeton University in New Jersey, he went to Italy for the year to learn from the composer Luigi Dallapiccola, in the process developing a liking for modern art being produced in the era by the likes of Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana, who were pushing abstraction in new directions. When he returned to the U.S., he bought works from dealer Catherine Viviano, whose New York gallery represented the Beckmann estate.<\/p>\n
For the remainder of his life, Seeger lived in Europe. During the \u201960s, Seeger moved to Greece, which instilled in him an interest in the country\u2019s culture and ultimately led him to donate $2 million toward the formation of a Hellenic culture center in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n
Private Jets, Tudor Manors<\/strong><\/h3>\nIn 1979, Seeger met Cone; the two soon flew together to Greece on Seeger\u2019s private jet. Their whirlwind romance, despite the age difference (Seeger was 24 years Cone\u2019s senior), would be consequential. The following year, the pair decided to move to England, and though Seeger had previously managed to keep himself out of the press, he made headlines when he bought Sutton Place, a British manor, just over an hour southwest of London, with 700 acres of land, from J. Paul Getty for \u00a38 million (about \u00a334.5 million today). That transaction marked the largest sum ever for a British property at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Stanley was doing in his collecting life was creating episodes, like little nests.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sutton Place\u2019s grand halls and majestic rooms once played host to elite guests such as Henry VIII. For a short period, they were strewn with works from Seeger\u2019s holdings. In their new home, Cone and Seeger worked together to situate modern art in a 16th-century property, leading to some unexpected juxtapositions between old and new. The couple built a pond and put at its center a Mir\u00f3 sculpture. And, in the Great Hall, they put a prized Francis Bacon triptych front and center. \u201cIt caused a scandal,\u201d Cone said in the\u00a0FT<\/em>\u00a0interview. \u201cYou didn\u2019t do things like that in a Grade I Tudor mansion.\u201d Bacon, an artist who was notoriously hard to please, \u201cloved\u201d that hang, according to Cone.<\/p>\nSix years later, in 1986, Seeger sold Sutton Place to the philanthropist Frederick R. Koch. After that, he and Cone continued to bounce around Europe, at one point living on his yacht, but he was often hard to pin down, and where he went in the years up until his death largely remains a mystery.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n![\"Bronze](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/web-DP-13618-001.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>Auguste Rodin,\u00a0The Age of Bronze<\/em>, 1876, cast ca. 1906. A similar version of the work was acquired by Seeger.<\/span>METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt\u2019s All in the Name<\/strong><\/h3>\nSeeger was private, and that partially accounted for the shock when the 1993 Picasso sale performed so well. After that sale, however, his name being attached to a given auction or even just a single lot signaled an important sale to watch\u2014and a potential opportunity to rake in a good deal of money. \u201cEight years ago,\u201d Carol Vogel wrote in a\u00a02001\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a>, \u201cthe name Stanley J. Seeger was seldom heard in the art world.\u201d<\/p>\nThat year, Seeger became the subject of fascination once more when Sotheby\u2019s put up for a sale another cache of works from his collection in a New York auction titled \u201cThe Eye of a Collector.\u201d That sale, too, was a smash hit, besting its estimate of $38 million by raking in making $54 million. A version of Auguste Rodin\u2019s\u00a0Age of Bronze<\/em>\u00a0sold for $1.76 million, shooting way beyond its estimate of $264,000. And that was only a small sum compared to the evening\u2019s top lot, the Bacon that once hung in the Great Hall of Sutton Place. That painting, titled\u00a0Triptych\u2014Studies of the Human Body\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(1979) and featuring abstracted fleshy forms against a cadmium-colored background, sold for $8.58 million, setting a new record for a Bacon at auction.<\/p>\nWhile Seeger\u2019s holdings are these days best remembered for the milestones they generated in the salesroom, the collector himself was known to be circumspect of the market. \u201cHe was completely uninterested\u201d in market trends, Nash said. \u201cHe had a good eye and a good intellect, and he knew a lot about what he was doing. He had no interest in social promotion. He had no interest in the investment potential of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Stanley was doing in his collecting life was creating episodes, like little nests.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sutton Place\u2019s grand halls and majestic rooms once played host to elite guests such as Henry VIII. For a short period, they were strewn with works from Seeger\u2019s holdings. In their new home, Cone and Seeger worked together to situate modern art in a 16th-century property, leading to some unexpected juxtapositions between old and new. The couple built a pond and put at its center a Mir\u00f3 sculpture. And, in the Great Hall, they put a prized Francis Bacon triptych front and center. \u201cIt caused a scandal,\u201d Cone said in the\u00a0FT<\/em>\u00a0interview. \u201cYou didn\u2019t do things like that in a Grade I Tudor mansion.\u201d Bacon, an artist who was notoriously hard to please, \u201cloved\u201d that hang, according to Cone.<\/p>\n Six years later, in 1986, Seeger sold Sutton Place to the philanthropist Frederick R. Koch. After that, he and Cone continued to bounce around Europe, at one point living on his yacht, but he was often hard to pin down, and where he went in the years up until his death largely remains a mystery.<\/p>\n Seeger was private, and that partially accounted for the shock when the 1993 Picasso sale performed so well. After that sale, however, his name being attached to a given auction or even just a single lot signaled an important sale to watch\u2014and a potential opportunity to rake in a good deal of money. \u201cEight years ago,\u201d Carol Vogel wrote in a\u00a02001\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a>, \u201cthe name Stanley J. Seeger was seldom heard in the art world.\u201d<\/p>\n That year, Seeger became the subject of fascination once more when Sotheby\u2019s put up for a sale another cache of works from his collection in a New York auction titled \u201cThe Eye of a Collector.\u201d That sale, too, was a smash hit, besting its estimate of $38 million by raking in making $54 million. A version of Auguste Rodin\u2019s\u00a0Age of Bronze<\/em>\u00a0sold for $1.76 million, shooting way beyond its estimate of $264,000. And that was only a small sum compared to the evening\u2019s top lot, the Bacon that once hung in the Great Hall of Sutton Place. That painting, titled\u00a0Triptych\u2014Studies of the Human Body\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(1979) and featuring abstracted fleshy forms against a cadmium-colored background, sold for $8.58 million, setting a new record for a Bacon at auction.<\/p>\n While Seeger\u2019s holdings are these days best remembered for the milestones they generated in the salesroom, the collector himself was known to be circumspect of the market. \u201cHe was completely uninterested\u201d in market trends, Nash said. \u201cHe had a good eye and a good intellect, and he knew a lot about what he was doing. He had no interest in social promotion. He had no interest in the investment potential of art.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>It\u2019s All in the Name<\/strong><\/h3>\n