A Pierre Soulages abstraction that sold for just under $5 million at Christie’s last November has become the subject of a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, with the plaintiffs alleging the work was stolen from their family between 1977 and 1980.
The painting in question is Peinture 161 x 200 cm, 14 novembre 1958, which appeared in Christie’s evening sale of the collection of Patricia G. Ross Weis and Robert F. Weis, founders of the Weis Markets grocery chain. The suit was brought by William Lie Zeckendorf and Arthur W. Zeckendorf, co-chairs of the real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, along with James Nicholson and Leslie Nicholson, all beneficiaries of a now-dissolved trust established under the will of Marion Zeckendorf.
According to both the suit and Christie’s own provenance records, the painting was purchased the year after its creation from the Kootz Gallery in New York by Marion Zeckendorf. Marion died in 1968, and the work was recorded in her estate inventory. Following the death of her widower William Zeckendorf Sr. in 1976, it was distributed to a trust established under Marion’s will. The plaintiffs claim the Soulages was stolen in 1977 and was missing by 1980, when the trust was dissolved. The work appeared on the London-based Art Loss Register from 2008 until 2025.
Christie’s provenance records state that the painting subsequently passed through the Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery in New York, which sold it to the Weis family in 1984. The suit argues this is impossible on its face: Marion Zeckendorf could not have sold or consigned the work because she died in 1968, and William Zeckendorf Sr. had no authority to do so as the painting had not been distributed to him by the trust’s administrators
When pressed on the Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer connection, the defendants provided an invoice from Niveau Gallery dated 1984. The plaintiffs allege that invoice is a fabrication. Their grounds are specific: Niveau Gallery used grey invoices from approximately 1954 to 1961 and switched to blue invoices after 1961. The invoice provided by the defendants was grey, not blue, which the suit describes as a material inconsistency with authentic Niveau documentation held at the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art.
The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs learned of the planned Christie’s sale on 10 November, seven days before it was scheduled for 17 November. Rather than seeking to halt the auction, both parties agreed that the sale could proceed while the plaintiffs’ claims were preserved, with the proceeds held in escrow pending resolution of the dispute. The Soulages hammered at $4 million, reaching a final total of $4,955,000 with buyer’s premium against a presale estimate of $5 million to $7 million. It was one of 18 lots from the Weis collection that sold that evening, contributing to a total of $218.1 million from the family’s consignment.
A Christie’s spokesperson said the house “was aware of and resolved this issue ahead of the sale,” asserting that title passed to the buyer and that any remaining financial dispute does not involve Christie’s or its sale.
The Art Loss Register confirmed that a registration for a Soulages work matching this title was active in its database from 2008 to 2025. ALR director James Ratcliffe noted that the registration lacked images, making absolute certainty about the match difficult, though the organisation worked on the assumption they were the same work. He added that the party that had registered the claim was contacted prior to the sale and asked for further information to substantiate it. That information was not provided. Instead, the registrant confirmed in writing that he did not wish to stand in the way of the sale, and the ALR removed the listing from its database and notified Christie’s accordingly.
The defendants are listed as the personal representatives of the estate of Patricia R. Weis. A Weis Markets spokesperson declined to comment. An attorney for the Zeckendorf family also declined to comment beyond the contents of the filing.
Pierre Soulages, who died at the age of 102 in 2022, was internationally known as “the painter of black and light.” He created a vast body of abstract paintings and forged a career of great inventiveness and longevity that sealed his place in art history.
Top Photo: Pierre Soulages’s 1958 abstraction Peinture. Photo Courtesy Christie’s