Sidney Rothberg was a protégé of Albert Barnes, the renowned chemist, businessman, educator, and art collector.

Over the years, Rothberg amassed a personal art collection worth millions of dollars. Now 16 years after his death, those artworks are up for sale at Freeman’s | Hindman’s auction house in Center City, writes Peter Crimmins for WHYY.

The 242 pieces are expected to generate a minimum of $3 million.

Rothberg, who grew up in Philadelphia, learned about art at The Barnes Foundation. He later challenged visitors to pay attention to their reactions while looking at the walls of his home, which were fully covered with art.

However, he was also a very private person, and not many got invited inside his home. That is why Raphael Chatroux, Saranne and Freeman’s head of American art, designed a pre-auction exhibition that provided the general public with a chance to see the works before they once again disappear into private hands.

“The collection has been here for decades, but it has not been seen or shown for all that time,” said Chatroux. “It was important for everyone who may have known that it existed to see it in the flesh before all those works are dispersed again throughout the globe.”

Read more about the art collection and the man behind it in WHYY.

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