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Sotheby’s may have broken records with a $236 million Gustav Klimt last night, but its most eyebrow-raising sale this season may still be yet to come. Among the auction house’s high-profile offerings in its new Breuer Building home this week are three masterpieces from the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, whose deaccession has drawn criticism from the public and a member of the Phillips family.

The three Phillips Collection paintings hitting the auction floor on Thursday, November 20, are Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Large Dark Red Leaves on White” (1927), Georges Seurat’s “Clowns et poney” (1883–84), and Arthur Dove’s “Rose and Locust Stump” (1943). They are expected to fetch up to $14.8 million in total, money the Phillips Collection says will go toward new acquisitions and collection care. The museum will also sell seven other works, including the Pablo Picasso sculpture “Tête de femme” (1950) and Milton Avery’s “Spring Landscape” (1953), in a sale yet to be announced.

While museum watchdog organizations, including the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the American Association of Museum Directors (AAMD), generally approve of deaccessioning works to fund future acquisitions and collection maintenance, the Phillips Collection sale has generated opposition — notably from the granddaughter of museum founders Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, Liza Phillips, who rebuked the move.

“We treasure those pieces,” she told the Washington Post. “They are integral to the character of the museum. They belong to the public. They are now probably going into private hands. It’s just a shame.”

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The specific items included in the deaccession sale were determined by the Board of Trustees, in line with AAM and AAMD standards, a Phillips Collection spokesperson claimed. Plans to sell the works were also approved by an 11-person “Members group,” which does not have fiduciary or administrative authority and includes descendants of Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, the representative said.