Rockefeller collection could become first art auction to top $1B

The vast art collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller, which includes pieces from Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, could make history by selling for more than $1 billion in May at Christie’s in New York City.

All proceeds from the auction will go to a variety of charities at the behest of David Rockefeller, who died in March 2017.

The Rockefellers – long synonymous with American wealth and culture – collected impressionist and post-impressionist works of art and also owned several notable pieces that had been handed down from previous generations.

“This is one of the greatest private collections that we’ll see come to auction in our lifetime,” Witmer Fine Art Advisors President Michel Cox Witmer told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday. “He had a great eye, David Rockefeller.” Rockefeller was the son of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of the principal founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, and John D. Rockefeller Jr.

One of the notable pieces in the collection is “Nympheas en Fleur” by Monet – “one of the most beautiful paintings to come to auction in a decade,” according to Witmer.It is estimated to sell for $50 million and is part of Monet’s water lilies series, depicting his flower garden at his home in Giverny, France.

“We don’t see paintings like this by Monet coming any longer to auction,” Witmer said. “These are not in the marketplace. Collectors will be after this like crazy.”

Other pieces include the drawing “Planteuse de Betteraves” by Vincent Van Gogh, which is expected to net $2.5 million, and a piece by Paul Signac, the artist famous for painting scenery from southern France by hitting the canvas with his brush and allowing each little dot to show. "Antibes" could sell for as much as $5 million.

In addition to high-profile pieces from world-renowned artists, part of the reason the collection could go for so much, Witmer said, is because of the Rockefeller name. There were no fakes or forgeries purchased by the Rockefellers, who bought the best of everything, according to Witmer.

“All of the collectors are going to feel very confident bidding there,” he said.