The exclusive auction event honors the American Songbook master and 25-time Grammy-winning national treasure
Julien’s Auctions, the industry-leading music memorabilia auction house announced, Tony Bennett: A Life Well Lived, their exclusive two-day auction event celebrating the legendary life and career of the iconic pop-jazz vocalist will take place Thursday, April 18th, and Friday, April 19th, 2024 in his birthplace of New York City at Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame in Jazz at Lincoln Center, following their star-studded gala honoring Tony Bennett. The auction will take place live and online at Julien’s Auctions.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, exclusive exhibitions showcasing highlights of Tony Bennett’s historic collection will be mounted leading up to the gala and auction at two iconic venues associated with Bennett’s illustrious career beginning at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco from April 8-10th and Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame in Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York April 10-16.
“Tony Bennett’s life mirrored America’s cultural, social and political history. This is reflected in these unique and priceless items that act as markers of his life and more,” states Olivier Chastan, Founder and CEO of Iconoclast, the artist and brand development company that acquired and manages the legacy of the legendary singer and artist. “This incredible collection speaks to Tony’s creative genius and his positive impact on others and the world.”
In a peerless career spanning eight decades as one of the 20th and 21st century’s great entertainers, Tony Bennett was musical splendor. His masterful recordings and performances of the most popular classics from the Great American songbook from his signature 1962 hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Because of You,” “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words),” “Rags to Riches,” to numerous other standards and duets with the top music artists of all time from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga became instant classics and cultural touchstones.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bennett’s career soared and his fan base flourished, under the management of his son Danny Bennett, with his appearances on The David Letterman Show, MTV Video Music Awards and recordings of his platinum albums MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett (and accompanying MTV special) and Duets: An American Classic, and chart-topping albums, Perfectly Frank, Steppin’ Out and The Art of Excellence. In the new millennium, Bennett reached even greater artistic peaks with a Grammy-winning streak of performances and albums featuring collaborations with pop music legends such as LD Lang, Stevie Wonder, and Billy Joel, and the next generation’s biggest superstars, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga, whom he recorded with on the Grammy Award-winning albums Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, his final release.
The beloved music icon recorded more than 70 albums selling 50 million records, whose honors and record-breaking achievements include 20 Grammys with 41 nominations, including a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, two Emmy Awards, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006, a Library of Congress Gershwin Prize in 2017, and a MusiCares Person of the Year in 1995. In 2007, he was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame for his lifelong activism and work in social justice. He received three Guinness World Records for “oldest performer in history to reach number one on the US album sales chart,” a Guinness World Record for “the longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist” and a Guinness World Record for “the oldest person to release a new album.”
An accomplished painter and sketch artist, Bennett was just as famous for his paintings as he was for his music. Some of his great works of landscapes, wildlife and foliage scenes and portraits of his friends from musicians, artists and cultural figures, whom he would illustrate during events or performances on various materials, as well as his portraits created by the 20th century’s visual art masters, whom he shared lifelong friendships with will be feted in this event.
David Hockney gifted and inscribed an assemblage portrait of Tony Bennett Tony Bennett toured the world until the global pandemic shutdown in 2020, but his home in NYC that he shared with his wife Susan Benedetto was his epicenter. Many of the items offered in this auction are those that he kept close to his heart in their apartment and reflect not just a life well lived, but a life well loved.
Highlights include a collection of Tony Bennett’s acclaimed original paintings and sketches, fine art, works by David Hockney, Willem de Kooning and LeRoy Neiman, and others; never-before-seen “75th Birthday Book of Extraordinary Letters” with over 100 pieces written by Martin Scorsese, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George Bush, Madonna, Elton John, John Travolta, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Carol Burnett & many others; sheet music of Duets’ “Body and Soul” signed by Amy Winehouse & “That’s Why the Lady is a Tramp” Signed by Lady Gaga; Letter of Appreciation from Martin Luther King Jr. to Tony Bennett for his performance at the 1965 Selma March; and much more.
