Rockefellers Go West
Christie’s sale of the collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller reflects the family’s travels.
In 2010, David Rockefeller signed the Giving Pledge, confirming his plans to give the majority of his personal wealth to charitable causes. When he passed away in 2017, the family began work with Christie’s to execute that pledge via the sale of the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller. “It’s poised to be the largest single-owner auction ever,” says Paige Kestenman, associate specialist of American art at Christie’s. “With the charitable aspect, that’s especially exciting.” The origins of the works crossing the block span the globe, and contributions from American artists include Western works by Georgia O’keeffe and Thomas Hart Benton.
Many of the artworks reflect the Rockefellers’ travels, throughout America. O’keeffe’s scenes of New Mexico, Near Abiquiu, New Mexico (est. $3/5 million) and New Mexico—near Taos (est. $2/3 million) may have recalled a train journey across the country Daivd Rockefeller took with his parents and brother as a child. “He celebrated his 11th birthday at the Taos Pueblo,” Kestenman explains. “If you think about these O’keeffes, they are from her first travels to New Mexico, and she would have been experiencing the same New Mexico as David did.”
Benton’s Navajo Sand is estimated to bring in $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The artist is particularly known for his regionalist works, and helped foster the movement in the 1920s and 1930s.