For the Rockefeller collection, Christie’s targeted buyers in China and Japan with special marketing campaigns, according to Marc Porter, Christie’s chairman of the Americas. Last month, it brought a Monet and a Matisse to Shanghai and Beijing to be viewed by mainland Chinese collectors.
It’s already paying off. At least a dozen of Christie’s Chinese “orca” clients -- or whales -- are heading to New York for the auctions this week, according to Rebecca Wei, president of Christie’s Asia. Usually they’re only on the phones, but this week she expects to see them in the main bidding room.
“They are fascinated by the Rockefeller name,” she said.
Three main factors underpin this interest: They want to know how the Rockefellers lived; how they preserved their wealth through generations; and how they built a magnificent art collection, she said.
“The big whale clients want the top-top pieces only by Tier 1 artists,” said Wei, listing Picasso, Matisse, Claude Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin and Paul Cezanne. “They like bright colors. Women need to be beautiful in the paintings."
Top on their list, she said, is a sensual 1923 Matisse canvas, “Odalisque couchee aux magnolias." Estimated at $70 million, it will probably set an auction record for the French artist, whose current high is $48.8 million.
Picasso’s 1905 “Young Girl with a Flower Basket," which depicts a pale, nude teenage girl with a basket of red blossoms, may be a tougher sell, Wei said.
“I had so many top collectors looking at the piece, saying ‘Mmm… I don’t know, she has a haunted look -- I like the Matisse much better.’”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.