Ellen DeGeneres Is Selling $10 Million of Art in Hamptons

Sotheby’s private sales gallery offered more than $10 million of contemporary works for sale from DeGeneres, whose art-filled houses have been published in magazines such as Architectural Digest.

Television talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is quietly selling millions of dollars worth of art.

Pieces from her collection recently popped up in East Hampton, where top New York dealers have opened spaces to cater to wealthy clients who fled the city during the lockdown, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Sotheby’s private sales gallery offered more than $10 million of contemporary works for sale from DeGeneres, whose art-filled houses have been published in magazines such as Architectural Digest. They include a mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder, a work on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a flock of sheep by Francois-Xavier Lalanne. She’s also selling a Basquiat painting through Van de Weghe Fine Art.

Some of the sheep, priced at $500,000 to $1 million, have already found new homes, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

A representative for DeGeneres declined to comment.

The sales come at a difficult moment for DeGeneres. In July, BuzzFeed News reported that current and former employees of her show said they encountered racism, intimidation and sexual harassment from managers. Three producers were fired last month, following a third-party investigation.

DeGeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi, have been buying and selling art for more than a decade. De Rossi started an art business two years ago, creating prints based on paintings she bought.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.)

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