Rockefeller Sale Misses Billion Dollar Mark Despite Monet And Matisse Records 

It wasn’t the billion dollar sale that Christie’s optimistically predicted but it was an evening of fierce bidding and record prices for both Matisse and the stalwart of Impressionism Monet. The single collection sale could still top the $1b mark as it continues until Friday.

The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller totalled $646.1 million in the first evening sale

A Rose Period Picasso with blue background lead the way from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller which totalled $646.1 million in the first evening sale of the series. The opening evening sale of works from The Collection generated huge international interest, which resulted in new world auction records being set for a number of the most revered artists of the last 150 years. The top price of the sale was achieved with Picasso’s Fillette à la corbeille fleurie  from 1905.

David Rockefeller Picasso’s Fillette à la corbeille fleurie from 1905
Picasso ‘Fillette à la corbeille fleurie’ 1905 $115,000,000 including commission

The Picasso canvas, one of the first paintings to be bought by Leo and Gertrude Stein, became the most expensive Rose Period work at auction when it was bought for $115,000,000 (including commission).

Collected by successive generations of the Rockefeller family, the 44 stellar works by Delacroix, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Gris, Picasso, Miro, and other greats of the 19th and 20th centuries realised $646,133,594 / £476,148,559, with every lot sold. All Estate proceeds from this auction and the other sales in the series will benefit selected charities that Peggy and David Rockefeller supported in their lifetime.

Bidders registered from 34 countries across five continents, and the tone was set with the opening lot of the night, Pablo Picasso’s Pomme, which sold for $3,972,500 after a contest between nine bidders. This 1914 work on paper was a Christmas gift from the artist to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and was one of a group of pictures from their pioneering collection to be acquired by Peggy and David Rockefeller in 1968. It was followed by La table de musicien  by Juan Gris, which achieved a highly impressive $31,812,500.

The first world auction record for an artist came when Eugène Delacroix’s Tigre jouant avec une tortue  (1862) cruised passed the previous mark of $7,762,290 (set in 1998) before selling for $9,875,000. This was immediately followed by further records for Corot’s Venise, vue du Quai des Esclavons, which sold for $9,009,844, comfortably eclipsing the previous record for the artist, and for Armand Seguin’s Les délices de la vie, a four-panel screen painted in circa 1892-93, which achieved $7,737,500 — more 20 times the mark set in 2007 — after a prolonged bidding battle.

The atmosphere then intensified as Gauguin’s La Vague, a work described as ‘one of the most original seascapes in Western art’, was offered to a packed saleroom. The 1888 painting, which was made on the beach at Le Pouldu in Brittany, went on to realise $35,187,500.

Three of the most keenly anticipated lots of the auction — Odalisque couchée aux magnolias  by Henri Matisse (1923), Monet’s Nymphéas en fleur, and Picasso’s Fillette à la corbeille fleurie  from 1905 — came next.

David Rockefeller Henri Matisse (1923), Monet’s Nymphéas en fleur
Henri Matisse (1923), ‘Odalisque couchée aux magnolias ‘ $80,750,000

The Matisse realised $80,750,000, a new world auction record for the French master also a new world auction record for the artist.

The depth of the bidding in the room and on the phones was testament to the taste, connoisseurship and standing of the Rockefeller family. Georges Seurat’s La rade de Grandcamp (Le port de Grandcamp), a founding work of the Neo-Impressionist movement bought by Peggy and David in 1955, realised $34,062,500. Minutes later, Paul Signac’s 1888 oil on canvas Portrieux. La Comtesse (Opus no. 191)  got close to the previous record, set at Christie’s in 2007, before selling for $13,812,500.

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Nymphéas en fleur, painted circa 1914-1917. 63 x 70⅞ in (160.3 x 180 cm). Sold for $84,687,500 in The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller: 19th and 20th Century Art, Evening Sale on 8 May at Christie’s in New York
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Nymphéas en fleur, 1914-1917 Sold for Record $84,687,500 Christie’s Evening Sale on 8 May at Christie’s in New York

French master; bidders competed for almost 14 minutes before the stunning Monet, which hung in the stairwell of one of the Rockefellers’ homes, sold for $84,687,500

A new world auction record for a work on paper by Edouard Vuillard was set with Les rues de Paris, panneaux pour Henry Bernstein: Seconde série, La Place Vintimille, before this history-making sale concluded in fitting fashion, with a world auction record for a work by Giorgio Morandi, a contest for Joan Miro’s Mural I, Mural II, Mural III, which was won with a final price of $20,000,000, and Odilon Redon’s Fleur, which set a world auction record for the artist.
‘It is challenging to express in words the many emotions our family is feeling as we celebrate the opening night of this sale week devoted to The Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection,’ said the couple’s son, David Rockefeller, Jr., in a statement. ‘Chief among them is pride and gratitude.’

Sales of The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller  continue with English & European Furniture, Ceramics and Decorations Part I  and the Art of the Americas Evening Sale  on 9 May, and the Fine Art Day Sale, English & European Furniture, Ceramics and Decorations Part II  and Travel and Americana  on 10 May. The Online sale continues until Friday 11 May.

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