What Will Become of Two Calder Mobiles in the Noyes Estate

Eliot Noyes is a legendary mid-century architect and designer who died in 1977. His widow passed away in 2010, leaving behind four children to decide how best to honor their father’s legacy, and how to divide the estate. The estate includes the New Canaan family home and two Alexander Calder mobiles that were displayed in the home. The kids do not want to let the mobiles go, but there are four of them and only two mobiles, so to avoid fighting or unfair distribution, they decided to auction off the mobiles at Christie’s on May 8. One mobile, Untitled, is valued at an estimated $3 to $4 million. Snow Flurry, the other mobile, is valued at $3.5 to $4.5 million.

Last November, a Calder mobile sold for a record price of $4,786,500. In 2010, a Calder sculpture sold for over $6 million. To promote the sale of the Noyes Calder mobiles, Christies has published a catalogue featuring photographs and history of the mobiles. These pieces are fresh to the market, and in light of how successful Calder pieces have been before, Christies suspects that the works will sell for a good price.

The children have also decided to sell the New Canaan home because they each already own homes elsewhere, and still own two homes that their father designed. Before selling, however, the children will put a conservation easement on the property to protect it.

See Ashlea Ebeling, How to Part With Art: The Noyes Calders, Forbes, Apr. 25, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.