How Much Is The Millinery Shop Worth?

Conclusion: If marketable, Edgar Degas’s The Millinery Shop would command approximately $60–90 million in a competitive private-sale context. The Art Institute of Chicago identifies this canvas as the largest and “perhaps the most ambitious” of the artist’s millinery works—an essential modern-life theme within Degas’s oeuvre—placing it among his most important oils outside the ballet subject [1]. Its uniqueness, scale, and canonical status justify a material premium over the artist’s public auction benchmarks.

Comparables and price logic: Public auction anchors for Degas’s two-dimensional works are relatively old and constrained by scarcity. The record for a Degas work on paper is the pastel Danseuse au repos at £17.6 million (≈$27.9 million) in 1999 [3], while a major Degas oil, Les Blanchisseuses, achieved $13.7 million in 1987 [4]. More recently, the overall artist record was reset by the bronze Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at $41.6 million in 2022, confirming deep, cross-category demand for iconic Degas subjects at the very top of the market [2]. A unique, prime-period, museum-caliber oil of a signature subject should clear these public benchmarks; our range therefore extrapolates upward from these anchors, reflecting the rarity premium and private-sale dynamics.

Rarity and museum imprimatur: Large, first-rank Degas oils of signature subjects (dancers, bathers, milliners) are overwhelmingly in institutional collections and almost never appear at auction. The Millinery Shop’s chain of title—Degas to Durand-Ruel, to the preeminent Chicago collector Annie Swan Coburn, and to the Art Institute in 1933—coupled with extensive publication and exhibition history, reduces perceived risk and supports a trophy-level valuation [1].

Category momentum and scholarship: Curatorial and scholarly currents have intensified focus on Degas’s depictions of modern labor and fashion beyond ballet. The Cleveland Museum of Art’s 2023–24 exhibition “Degas and the Laundress” broadened attention on working women in Degas, reinforcing the cultural resonance of themes closely allied to millinery [5]. The 150th anniversary programming for the first Impressionist exhibition in 2024 further amplified global interest in the core Impressionist canon, including Degas [6].

Assumptions: This valuation assumes sound structural and surface condition consistent with long-term museum stewardship, with normal aging and conservation for a work of this period. Any materially adverse condition findings would require a downward adjustment; conversely, pristine condition, optimal market timing, and head-to-head principal competition could push the price toward or above the top of the range. On balance, the $60–90 million range best reflects today’s market for a unique, canonical Degas oil of this stature.