ROCKEFELLER’S STUNNING ART COLLECTION WILL GO TO AUCTION.
1 ROCKEFELLER COLLECTION 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 on Tuesday. “It will be the sale of this century and the last as well,” said David Norman, former cochairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department. 2 MORE THAN 2,000 ITEMS 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. 3 GOING TO CHARITY The proceeds will go to about 12 charities that Rockefeller and his late wife Peggy supported, 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. 4 EXPECTED TO SET RECORD Sale of the collection could result in the largest tally in auction history, according to current and former auction specialists. Christie’s top sale of a collection to date was that of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, which tallied $484 million in February 2009. Competitor Sotheby’s top estate sale was the collection of its former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman, which tallied $469 million in 2015 and 2016. 5 A FEW EXCLUSIONS An avid collector, Rockefeller promised about 30 significant artworks to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Those works will be excluded from the Christie’s auctions.