Once in a lifetime: legendary Rockefeller art collection on show in London ahead of charity auction at Christies

The famous Rockefeller art collection is in London ahead of a New York Christie’s auction.
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Kate Gordon6 March 2018

David Rockefeller caught the collecting bug early when, aged seven, he stumbled across a much-wanted long-horned beetle.

From not-so-humble beginnings — his grandfather was America’s first billionaire — the banking scion and his wife, Peggy, created one of the most personal and legendary art collections of our time.

What’s well known is how the couple, who married in 1940, benefited from expert advice at the start.

David’s mother was one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and David, who died last year aged 101, liked to say that he was born there, as his childhood home was on the site of what is now the museum.

Less well known, but set to be revealed at a forthcoming international Christie’s sale, is how he and Peggy’s collection represents their legendary and very personal taste.

TAKING TREASURES AROUND THE WORLD

The sale will be at Christie’s flagship auction rooms at Rockefeller Centre in New York, with a different selection of items available to view in London, Paris, Beijing, LA and Shanghai.

The Picasso, a nude, Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905), is a masterpiece with a high estimate in the sale of £50 million.

Originally owned by writer Gertrude Stein, she admitted she didn’t like it when her brother bought it for about £20 in 1905.

Masterpiece: Picasso’s Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905) is estimated to fetch £50 million

Odalisque Reclining with Magnolias (1923) by Matisse, estimated at £35 million, hung at the Rockefellers’ Hudson Pines country estate. Claude Monet’s Waterlilies in Flower (1914-1917) was at their summer home.

FISHY LONDON MUST-SEE

Don’t leave the London viewing without seeing a pair of tureens modelled as flounders, made in Chelsea circa 1755, estimated at £56,000-£85,000.

Amusingly, the ladles are eels holding shells, and the flounders’ tail fins curl up, forming handles. This mimicry would have signalled to the guests the host’s interest in the natural world.

Made in Chelsea: a pair of fish-shaped porcelain table tureens (circa 1755), estimated to fetch £56,000-£85,000

OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER: DINNER IS SERVED

Ceramics certainly form an important part of the collection. David and Peggy owned 67 dessert services, but undoubtedly the one to attract the most attention will be the Marly Rouge Sèvres dessert service owned by Napoleon and taken with him in exile to Elba, with an estimate of £105,000-£140,000.

Incredibly rare is a Chinese blue-and-white “dragon bowl” dated 1426-1435 and estimated at £71,000-£106,000.

Christie’s experts found it tucked away in the Rockefeller summer home in Maine. Decorated with dragons concealed on the inside of the bowl, rendered in a special technique known as “anhua” or “hidden decoration”, this delightful piece was created during the very height of porcelain production.

GIVING BACK

David’s grandfather and father were strict Baptists and the idea of philanthropy, was a way of life.

Philanthropists: the Rockefellers’ art will be sold for charitable causes

This Christie’s auction is certainly the most important charity sale ever to take place, and is estimated to raise more than £350 million for a variety of charitable causes, all chosen by David and listed in his Will.

COLLECTING TODAY

What can today’s collectors learn from this couple? Jonathan Rendell, deputy chairman and senior adviser of Christie’s Americas, says: “Wait for the masterpiece. Everything is a great example of the artist’s work, or the school.

“The Rockefellers didn’t buy indiscriminately or for status, but bought things of huge rarity they were lucky enough to be able to buy.”

The final word has to go to the collector himself, who said: “If one is fortunate enough to live with beautiful objects, one should share them with others. I say ‘live with’ advisedly because, as one grows older, one realises that one doesn’t really own things — one is simply a custodian.

“Eventually all of these objects which have brought such pleasure to us will go out into the world and will again be available to other caretakers who, hopefully, will derive the same satisfaction and joy from them as we have.”

Works from the The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller on the London Tour are on free public view, now until March 8 at Christie’s, 8 King Street, St James’s SW1. The Christie’s sale of The Collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller is set for the week of May 7 in New York.

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