Phillips has announced DUCHAMP & COMPANY, a major New York auction curated by Francis M. Naumann, bringing together over 100 works that trace the enduring influence of Marcel Duchamp across generations.
Presented alongside Phillips’ seasonal Editions & Works on Paper and Modernism sales, the auction offers a focused yet expansive look at Duchamp’s legacy—pairing works by the artist himself with those by contemporaries and successors including Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, Sherrie Levine, John Baldessari and Joseph Kosuth.
The sale takes its title from a phrase used by Alfred Stieglitz in a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe, referring to the group that brought Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) to his gallery. Here, that phrasing is reactivated to frame a wider artistic conversation—one that extends from Duchamp’s radical redefinition of authorship into the practices of those who followed.
Ahead of the auction, an exhibition will open to the public at 432 Park Avenue from 16th–22nd April, offering a rare opportunity to encounter these works in person before bidding begins on 23rd April.
Kelly Troester and Cary Leibowitz, Deputy Chairpersons and Worldwide Co-Heads of Editions at Phillips, said
“Marcel Duchamp irrevocably reshaped how we think about art and authorship, and this sale has been conceived as an homage to that enduring legacy. The project feels especially timely following renewed institutional attention to Duchamp’s work, including an imminent exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, which has reanimated public and scholarly conversations around his practice. We are deeply grateful to Francis M. Naumann for his scholarship, discernment, and generosity in shaping the auction with such care and insight; his lifelong engagement with Duchamp’s work brings extraordinary depth and context to the selection. The works gathered in DUCHAMP & COMPANY reflect an ongoing conversation between the artist and generations who responded to his wit, curiosity, and radical openness, and we are honored to share that dialogue with our community of collectors and enthusiasts.”
Among the highlights is La Boîte-en-valise, série F (1966), one of Duchamp’s most complex multiples—an intricately assembled portable retrospective comprising 80 miniature reproductions of his works, housed within a signed red leather case. Elsewhere, L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved (1965) captures the artist’s enduring irreverence: a reworking of the Mona Lisa through playing cards and inscription, continuing his long-standing interrogation of authorship and iconography.
For those drawn to more traditional printmaking, The Chess Players (1965) offers a quieter counterpoint—an etching based on an earlier charcoal drawing depicting Duchamp’s brothers at play, linking his artistic practice to his lifelong engagement with chess. Also included is a rare 1937 pochoir-coloured reproduction of Nude Descending a Staircase, signed on a French postage stamp, further demonstrating the artist’s ongoing play with authenticity and reproduction.
What emerges across DUCHAMP & COMPANY is less a conventional sale than a network of ideas—one that continues to unfold across time. Duchamp’s influence is not contained within the works on offer, but activated through them, extending outward into a lineage of artists who continue to test, question and reframe what art can be.
DUCHAMP & COMPANY Auction: 23rd April 2026, Auction viewing: 16th–22nd April Phillips New York
MORE: phillips.com/auction/NY030826
