Artist Jeff Koons is preparing to part with approximately $100 million worth of art from his personal collection at Christie's New York this November. The nine works will be presented under the title "Heroes and Lovers," according to the New York Times, which identified Koons as the consignor. Christie's itself lists the property only as coming from a distinguished private collector. The consignment spans several centuries and reads less like a conventional collection than a visual research archive behind Koons's own practice. The star lot is Pablo Picasso's Le Baiser (1969), a large grayscale painting of a forceful kiss estimated in the region of $40 million. Koons acquired it at Sotheby's in 2008 for $17.4 million, meaning its estimated value has more than doubled during his ownership. Observers have noted its resonance with the erotic imagery running through Koons's Made in Heaven series. The remaining works trace a broad historical arc. They include Edouard Manet's Femme au tub, an 1878-79 work on paper; a 16th-century painting by Cornelis van Haarlem of a man wrestling a bull, which echoes Koons's own Antiquity (Farnese Bull) from 2009-12; and a late-Gothic woodcarving of St. Catherine by Tilman Riemenschneider. Both the van Haarlem and the Riemenschneider were lent by Koons to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011. Reports suggest Koons intends to reinvest the proceeds in his ongoing artistic practice. For Christie's, the sale adds another high-profile single-owner offering to a packed autumn calendar, and it places a major artist's private holdings under the auction hammer just as the New York November season takes shape.