The estate of publishing magnate Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. took note last fall when collectors clamored after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $1.6 billion record-setting estate sale. Heartened by the art market’s resilience, the publisher’s family said Tuesday it plans to follow suit—auctioning off more of Mr. Newhouse’s own trove this spring. The move marks the third time the Newhouse estate has plied his pieces into sales since he died six years ago at age 89—a trickling strategy that contrasts with the theatrical, everything-must-go atmosphere conjured when Mr. Allen or the Rockefellers before him sold off vast art holdings all at once. The 16 latest works consigned to Christie’s for its coming New York sales in May represent a fraction of the art amassed over the decades by Condé Nast’s chairman emeritus, but the batch is estimated to top $144 million and will showcase his taste for a broad sweep of artists, including Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns and Lee Bontecou.

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