Pre-Auction art viewings

A fun (free) New York activity you may have never considered is to wander through the pre-auction exhibits at the big auction houses. Christie’s at Rockefeller, Sotheby’s, Phillips, and Bonhams.

Almost everything you’re looking at came straight out of someone’s private collection and is about to disappear into another private collection. This is your one shot to see it, because it’s not going to a museum. It’s going back above someone’s fireplace or into a climate-controlled storage unit. A lot of pieces haven’t been on public view for decades. Some have never been on view at all.

The vibe is surprisingly relaxed. You basically wander around in silence, look at a bunch of things that would normally be behind velvet ropes, and then go get coffee. And the mix is wild. Paintings, sculpture, jewelry the size of grapes, furniture from estates you will never step foot in.

The previews only last a few days to a couple of weeks, so you have to pay attention to the auction calendars. May and November are the biggest weeks, but there’s always something happening. You can make a whole afternoon of it — Christie’s to Phillips to Bonhams, then up to Sotheby’s — and feel like you got a private museum tour for exactly zero dollars. (Christie’s has free coffee, too!)

It’s honestly one of the easiest, coolest things to do in the city. You get a brief little window into a world you don’t normally get access to, and then everything gets packed up and vanishes again. If you’re in NYC at the right time, go. It’s free, it’s fascinating, and it’s art you will very likely never see again.