On February 19, Guernsey’s will be conducting an unprecedented auction of The Frame as Art: Eli Wilner’s Personal Collection consisting of more than four hundred of the workshop’s very finest frames made using old-world artisanship. The auction is a celebration of Eli Wilner & Company’s 40+ years as the country’s leading Master Framer will be held on February 19th, beginning at 1pm, online through  Liveauctioneers.com and Invaluable.com, or through absentee bidding, order bidding, or telephone.

What do The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum and the White House have in common? On the walls of each, one will find more than two dozen magnificent picture frames crafted at the workshops of Eli Wilner & Company, Master Framers. When The Met was searching for an intricately carved, stunning and massive 14 by 23-foot gold-leafed frame to showcase its historic painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware, the Museum commissioned Eli Wilner for the coveted seven-figure assignment. And when Sotheby’s and Christie’s required the very finest frames to surround important works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, O’Keeffe, Rockwell and Magritte, they reached out to the Wilner studio. 

Following the conclusion of prominent museum exhibitions or important art auctions, frames the Company loaned for those occasions were returned and became part of the Eli Wilner Classic Frame Collection. Each unique frame will include its exhibition history.  The auction will include frames that surrounded works such as: van Gogh’s Paysage sous un Ciel Mouvemente for $54 million, Rockwell’s The Gossips for $8 million, and Picasso’s Le Peintre et son Modele for $13 million all of which were sold at Sotheby’s.

In addition to Washington Crossing the Delaware, The Met framed John Singer Sargent’s famous Madame X  in an exquisite Wilner work, while a visit to the White House would include sightings of Eli Wilner frames on Albert Bierstadt’s powerful Storm Clouds and, in the Oval Office, Childe Hassam’s The Avenue in the Rain.

Inquiries about this unprecedented, upcoming auction should be directed to Guernsey’s (212-794-2280, frames@guernseys.com), the New York-based auction house known for such events as the landmark Cold War auction of artwork from the Soviet Union, the Titanic sale, auctions of recovered collections of Holocaust-related art and the John F. Kennedy auctions.