January 3rd 2010, source: Sotheby's
The collection is the largest collection of Post War and Contemporary Art ever to come at auction in the Netherlands. Starting in the late 1950s it became famous as the Peter Stuyvesant Collection and now consists of more than 1000 works created by artists from over 40 countries. The core body of the collection, which will be offered for sale in March, comprises 163 works by leading artists such as Karel Appel, Arman, Alighiero Boetti, Corneille, Alan Davie, Simon Hantai, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Wilfredo Lam, Robert Mangold, Robert S. Matta, Kenneth Noland, Roman Opalka, Niki de St Phalle, Serge Poliakoff, Manuel Rivera, David Salle, Giuseppe Santomaso, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesus Rafael Soto, Gunther Uecker and Victor Vaserely. All these artworks are completely fresh to the market.

The story behind how this remarkable collection was formed is inspiring: in the late-50s Alexander Orlow, the Managing Director of Turmac Tobacco, put his love for abstract art to industrial use. “However complicated the operations of a machine may look,” he said “it soon becomes monotonous to factory worker”. He wanted to improve their working environment, raise the spirits of his dedicated employees, he decided to and did this by building year by year what in time became a world-class collection of large, colourful contemporary works specifically chosen to be shown in the factories above the machinery and so provide inspiration and stimulation.

As Dr. Wim Beeren one of the advisers to the collection wrote: "Alexander Orlow came up with the sublime idea to place paintings by modern artists in the factories surrounded by the industrial process. It demonstrated the great faith that Orlow had in the works of art to create a stimulating environment within the work process.”