About 50 works from the art collection pledged to Seattle University's planned museum will go to Sotheby's auction instead. Proceeds are projected to exceed $90 million to fund the building's construction.
Donor Richard "Dick" Hedreen decided to sell the works, the university announced Sept. 14. The sales will fund construction of the Seattle University Museum of Art (SUMA), a four-story, 44,000-square-foot facility designed by Tom Kundig of Seattle's Olson Kundig on the university's 12th Avenue campus.
Hedreen pledged the collection, valued at $300 million, in 2024 along with $25 million in seed money for the museum. He and his late wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Hedreen, a Seattle University alumna, assembled the paintings, pottery, photography, etchings and sculptures over six decades.
The remaining approximately 350 works will still go to the university. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported that SUMA planning remains ongoing, with updates expected in "coming months." The Observer characterized the gift as potentially the largest art donation ever made to an American university.
Hedreen said the sales are happening "to translate our pledge into a gift realizable in the near term."
What's on the block
Sotheby's will offer the works across its Contemporary and Modern sales in November, with a dedicated Old Masters auction in New York in February 2027. Marquee lots include Roy Lichtenstein's Reflections on "Painter and Model" (estimated $20 million–$30 million), Georg Pencz's Portrait of Sigismund Baldinger ($8 million–$12 million), and works by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, Cecily Brown and Titian with individual estimates ranging from $4 million to $10 million.
The permanent collection will retain works spanning six centuries, including pieces by Willem de Kooning, Amy Sherald and Rashid Johnson.
Lee Center faces demolition
SUMA will rise on the site of the Lee Center for the Arts at 12th Avenue and East Marion Street. That means demolishing a former auto showroom renovated for $6.75 million in 2006 into a 22,000-square-foot building with a 150-seat theater. The Hedreens themselves chaired the campaign that built the Lee Center, according to the Observer. The Hedreen Gallery inside bears their name.
Faculty and community members have pushed back. Aly Bedford, an academic program coordinator at Seattle University, said in a February 2025 report by Capitol Hill Seattle Blog that administration and the board made the demolition decision "with absolutely no input from us, the experts of performance spaces, and professionals in our Seattle arts community."
John Feit, chair of Seattle University's Implementation Advisory Committee, wrote in April 2025 that the Lee Center "provides premium performance space that is not replicable by the soon-to-be acquired assets from Cornish." The committee is a city-appointed citizen group that monitors institutional development but cannot block projects.
Seattle University has said theater programs will move to performance spaces acquired through its merger with Cornish College of the Arts, including venues at Seattle Center and near Denny Way.
What's still unknown
No groundbreaking date or final construction budget has been announced. As of July 2025, the university targeted a fall 2028 opening, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported. Sellen Construction is the listed contractor.
