Sotheby’s Unveils Breuer Building Headquarters Ahead of Major November Sales

Marcel Breuer’s concrete landmark at 945 Madison Avenue has endured as a cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape for nearly six decades. Completed in 1966 for the Whitney Museum of American Art, the structure asserts an imposing presence among the Upper East Side’s stately mansions and townhouses through cantilevered granite, trapezoidal windows, bluestone floors that have carried decades of exhibitions, and bush-hammered concrete walls. A canopy of domed ceiling lights casts a gentle glow across these surfaces, which have remained steady through each chapter of the site’s multifaceted life. After the Whitney moved downtown in 2015 to a contemporary building by Renzo Piano, the Metropolitan Museum of Art took over until 2020. The Frick Collection followed soon after, its ornate sensibility striking a vivid contrast with Breuer’s Brutalism while its Fifth Avenue mansion underwent renovation by Selldorf Architects.

Sotheby’s acquired 945 Madison Avenue in 2024 for approximately $100 million as part of its plan to depart its longtime headquarters on York Avenue. The auction house enlisted storied Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron with the preservation-minded PBDW Architects to refit the building for public programming and the daily flow of a global auction house. On November 8, Sotheby’s officially unveiled its new home base—and revealed a structure masterfully calibrated for the constant movement of blue-chip artwork and well-heeled visitors. Expanded galleries extend across the upper levels, adaptable salesrooms respond to changing seasons of material, and Marcel, a restaurant created with Galerie Creative Mind firm Roman and Williams and featuring a La Mercerie Patisserie nested inside, slated to open in the spring.

“Opening the Breuer marks a new and exciting chapter in our history and a striking return to Madison Avenue for Sotheby’s,” said Charles F. Stewart, the auction house’s CEO, referring to its original New York headquarters at 980 Madison Avenue, where it operated from the mid-1960s until 1980. “Whether you admire the Breuer as an architectural icon, its storied museum history, or its unbeatable location, we look forward to welcoming you back. Our fall season is one of the very best in recent memory, a suitably exceptional opening exhibition and sale series that rises to meet this landmark moment.”

Herzog & de Meuron approached the commission with a steady hand toward preserving Breuer’s architecture. In many ways, they were an ideal collaborator for the project. The firm has shaped a multitude of high-profile cultural destinations around the world, including Tate Modern in London, M+ in Hong Kong, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and most recently Calder Gardens in Philadelphia. 

Here, the architects collaborated with PBDW to restore the original layout and prepare the site for the daily demands of a global auction house. The second level gained reinstated gallery proportions and a new 1,832-square-foot room that can accommodate auctions, talks, and installations. Newly laid oak flooring leads visitors toward the iconic trapezoidal window, which anchors a refined enfilade. The third level retains its bluestone floors and coffered concrete ceilings, and the fourth level now combines its soaring 17-foot gallery with the main Madison Avenue window and newly opened rooms along 75th Street. The fifth level introduces skylit rooms and a boardroom built around the marble table Breuer designed for the Whitney, now paired with projection technology.

“Paradoxically, our strongest architectural contribution was to remain quasi-invisible, as if everything had always been there,” says Jacques Herzog, co-founder of Herzog & de Meuron. Updated lighting systems balance targeted spots with broad washes of illumination. New climate systems stabilize conditions for sensitive material. After sunset, exterior lighting outlines the concrete canopy and sharpens the structure’s profile on Madison Avenue. “The beauty and clarity of Breuer’s original work radiates,” Herzog continues, “and ensures its relevance for future generations.”

In May, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Breuer building as both an individual and interior landmark, protecting the exterior and the double-height lobby. The ruling gave the architects room to focus on circulation improvements and essential upgrades while safeguarding Breuer’s defining features. “We are privileged to inhabit an architectural masterpiece that has been home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Met Breuer, and the Frick Collection,” said Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s executive vice president and chairman. “Those who knew it in earlier incarnations will be moved by how we’ve reimagined 945 Madison Avenue, preserving the spirit of nearly 60 years of acclaimed programming. Breuer’s design, with its remarkable ability to embrace many styles and eras of art, is especially meaningful for Sotheby’s.”

The inaugural season animates the full sweep of the building. The Leonard A. Lauder Collection introduces major canvases by Gustav Klimt along with a rare grouping of Matisse bronzes. The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection centers on Vincent van Gogh’s still life Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes). Exquisite Corpus brings decades of Surrealist collecting into one sequence of rooms, from Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) to Salvador Dalí’s Personnage aux tiroirs, alongside drawings that trace the movement’s reach. Visitors can also see Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Crowns (Peso Neto)—a work featured in the late artist’s first major retrospective, held in this building in 1992—as well as Maurizio Cattelan’s solid-gold toilet America before the marquee evening auctions begin on November 18.