Tycoon’s treasures sale breaks record
Rockefeller’s collection fetches US$828mil
NEW YORK: Peggy and David Rockefeller’s lavish artworks and other treasures set a new world record this week at a Christie’s auction, topping US$800mil (RM3.2bil) as the priciest ever single-owner collection.
That’s about twice the previous record of US$484mil (RM1.93bil) from a 2009 Paris sale of designer Yves Saint Laurent’s estate.
The three-day live sale of the late couple’s belongings ended on Thursday with a US$115mil (RM460mil) star lot – a Picasso painting called Fillette a la Corbeille Fleurie of a naked girl holding a basket of flowers that once belonged to the writer Gertrude Stein, estimated to be worth US$100mil (RM400mil). The runner-up, at US$84mil (RM336mil), was a Monet canvas with his famed water lilies, Nimpheas en Fleur, which surpassed its US$50mil (RM200mil) estimate and set a record for his art at auction against a previous high of US$81mil (RM324mil).
Matisse’s Odalisque Couchee aux Magnolias – depicting a woman in a Turkish harem – sold for US$80.8mil (RM323.2mil), topping the US$70mil (RM280mil) estimate and setting a new record for a Matisse, whose highest price at auction had been US$48.8mil (RM195.2mil).
In what one art publication dubbed “Rockefeller Mania”, Christie’s said 100% of the 893 Rockefeller lots offered live had sold, for a total of US$828mil (RM3.3bil), as well as all of the more than 600 lots sold online for US$4.6mil (RM18.4mil).
Diego Rivera’s 1931 The Rivals went for the highest price ever paid for a Latin American artwork on the block – US$9.8mil (RM39.2mil) against a pre-auction estimate of US$5mil to US$7mil (RM20mil to RM28mil).
On Friday, the sale was not over till the online-only bids were in. Anyone with a few hundred dollars could go for a piece of the opulence that surrounded the late Rockefeller couple – by bidding on, say, cufflinks or jewellery.
A 14-karat gold money clip once filled with Rockefeller cash sold for US$75,000 (RM300,000) against an estimate of US$800 to US$1,200 (RM3,200 to RM4,800).