Jasper Johns "Gray Numbers" via Artnet

A muted, gridded 1957 Jasper Johns painting with a stellar provenance, Gray Numbers, is for sale at Sotheby’s on Nov. 11, tagged $5 million to $7 million.

The painting was exhibited at Johns’ first show at the Leo Castelli Gallery, held in a townhouse on East 77th Street in 1958.

The painting was last acquired at Christie’s in November 2003 for $5.3 million during the sale of artworks from the estate of legendary MoMA curator Dorothy Miller. The estimate was also $5 million to $7 million. (New York magazine article on Miller here).

Miller had paid $325 for her Johns in 1958, and hung it on the wall of her modest Greenwich Village apartment until her death.

Dealer Andrew Fabricant, of Richard Gray Gallery, bought the Johns at Christie’s in 2003 for an unidentified buyer who is now selling.