A taste of a bygone era’s opulence will soon be up for sale: For the first time, items from the Rothschild family’s private collection will be up for auction in North America.
This October, Christie’s in New York will sell hundreds of curated pieces from the decadent banking dynasty’s trove in a series of events.
Entitled Rothschild Masterpieces, the series will include a lavish assortment of art, furniture and homewares.
“This week of auctions will make history,” Jonathan Rendell, a Christie’s Deputy Chairman, told The Post. “For the first time, one of the great collecting families of Europe is offering its important and intimate heirlooms at auction in the United States. The quality of the 600-plus objects in these sales is as extraordinary as the range.”
The array comes from the collection of Baron James de Rothschild, his wife Betty, and their sons Baron Alphonse and Baron Gustav — whose homes in Paris and the Château de Ferrières were so grandiose as to have a style, “goût Rothschild,” named after them.
“Throughout the 19th century, the Rothschild family’s collecting was the stuff of legend,” Rendell told Artnet News, highlighting a series of gilded leather panels “unseen in public for 150 years” and believed to be made by a Rembrandt follower, which are expected to command about $1.5 million.
A watercolor not for sale at the auction, but depicting the lavishness with which the Rothschilds decorated their homes.
The auction is expected to bring in some $30 million.
“The Rothschild masterpieces are already causing a stir in the market,” he noted.
Other collection highlights include a 17th-century oil on panel piece called “A young woman holding a hare with a boy at a window,” which is estimated to fetch in the $3 to $5 million range; a pair of late Louis XV giltwood and white-painted fauteuils ($600,000 to $1 million); and a set of porcelain tureens, covers and stands ($30,000 to $50,000).
Shallow-pocketed fans need not abandon all hope, though: Bidding on all lots starts at $100.
The masterpieces — many of which are currently on a world tour — will hit the auction block at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza headquarters beginning the evening of Oct. 11 and the mornings of Oct. 12 and 13.
An online sale will be conducted from Oct. 3 through 17.
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