Rockefeller collection headed to auction
The vast art collection of banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, who died in March, will be sold at Christie’s next year, the auction house said last week.
Rockefeller’s estate is selling more than 2,000 objects, including modern art masterpieces, Chinese export porcelain, American paintings and European furniture, according to Christie’s.
The auction house plans to offer the works in 2018 in a series of special sales in New York, according to a statement.
The total sale could be the largest tally in auction history, according to current and former auction specialists.
“It will be the sale of this century and the last as well,” said David Norman, a private art dealer and former co-chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department.
“Every work lives up to the Rockefeller name. It’s a perfect match of a great historic family and a great historic collection.”
The proceeds from the auctions will go to about 12 charities that Rockefeller and his late wife Peggy supported during their lifetimes, according to Fraser P. Seitel, a spokesman for the estate.
When Rockefeller died at age 101, he was the last-surviving grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, the nation’s first billionaire.
Christie’s declined to comment on the estimated value of the collection.
Proceeds from the auctions will benefit nonprofits and charities including the Museum of Modern Art, which was co-founded by his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller; Rockefeller University, a medical-research school started by his grandfather; and Harvard University, his alma mater.
An avid collector, Rockefeller promised about 30 significant artworks to MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Seitel said. Those works will be excluded from the Christie’s auctions.