Several pieces from the late David Rockefeller’s eye-popping art collection fetched a record-breaking $646 million Tuesday night — making it the most valuable collection sold at auction, according to reports.
More than 1,000 works of art went on the block at Christie’s for the three-day auction, including Pablo Picasso’s 1905 nude painting “Young Girl with a Flower Basket,” which sold for $115 million.
The sale was the second-highest price at auction for the artist.
New world auction record prices were also set by the sales of Claude Monet and Henri Matisse paintings.
Monet’s “Water Lilies in Bloom,” completed between 1914 and 1917, went for $84.6 million and Matisse’s 1923 “Odalisque Reclining with Magnolias” sold for $80.7 million.
Prior to Tuesday, the most expensive Matisse sold was his 1911 “The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric,” which went for $46.4 million in 2009. And an $81.4 million Monet was sold in 2016, making it the highest price paid at auction at the time.
Already, Rockefeller’s collection is the most expensive sold at auction, according to CNN.
That record had been set in 2009 when the more than 700-piece collection belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé sold for $484 million.
Tuesday night’s auction was composed of pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. Art of the Americas — including works from Willem de Kooning, Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent — will be auctioned Wednesday.
Other sale sessions at Christie’s will include furniture, ceramics and decorations, while an online auction will offer personal mementos, lamps, lighting and tableware.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to philanthropies that the billionaire banker and his wife, Peggy, supported in their lifetimes.
Rockefeller, the last surviving grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, died in March 2017 at age 101. He was worth $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Peggy, his wife of more than 50 years, died in 1996.
With Post wires



