NEW YORK, NY.- The third and final of Sotheby’s auctions of Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon drew to a close last night in New York, bringing the series total to an outstanding $218.1 million. The three-day Interiors auction – offering fine art, furniture, porcelain, silver, glassware, decoration and more from Mrs. Mellon’s residences in the United States and abroad – finished the series, more than doubling expectations to achieve $14.3 million.

Sotheby’s auctions of the Mellon Collection offered 1,551 lots in total – an exceptional 98.1% of which were sold – and together had been estimated in excess of $100 million*. Proceeds from the sales will benefit The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, a charitable entity established by Mrs. Mellon in memory of her father. The Foundation supports horticultural and educational endeavors.

Elaine Whitmire, Vice Chairman and Head of Sotheby’s Single Owner Sales Department, commented: “Mrs. Mellon was a woman not only of exceptional taste and style – she had a vision, and that is an even greater rarity. It has been wonderful to witness the response over the last six months from collectors, longtime admirers, and those learning about Mrs. Mellon’s life, eye and passions for the first time. I did not have the privilege of knowing her personally, but after our months spent with the collection at Oak Spring Farms this spring, and extending through to our exhibitions and sales this fall, everyone involved is coming away with a deep admiration for her. It has been an honor for Sotheby’s to present Mrs. Mellon’s collection.”

INTERIORS
21–23 November
Auction Total: $14.3 Million
High Estimate: $5.9 Million
98.4% Sold by Lot
Collectors competed feverishly across the three-day, five-session sale of Mrs. Mellon’s Interiors, driving the auction result to more than double its high estimate, and with 86.9% of all 1,250 lots on offer achieving prices above their high estimates. Online activity was particularly strong throughout the sale, with more than a quarter of all lots won by bidders participating on Sotheby’s BidNow platform.

Top lots across the collecting categories represented by Mrs. Mellon’s collection included:

· Henri le Sidaner’s 1929 canvas La nappe mauve, Villefranche-sur-Mer led the auction, fetching $437,000 (est. $250/350,000)

· Strong prices for porcelain throughout the five sessions were highlighted by a Chinese Export Porcelain 'Pseudo Tobacco Leaf' Part Service, circa 1775-85, which nearly doubled its high estimate to sell for $293,000

· Three sculptures by Mrs. Mellon’s longtime friend Diego Giacometti each smashed its estimate, including Table basse trapézoidale, modèle aux harpies that sold for $245,000 (est. $50/70,000) and his sculpture of the Mellons’ champion horse Mill Reef that brought $149,000 – more than 20 times its high estimate

· The significant selection of silver on offer was led by a Pair of George IV Silver Pail-Form Wine Coolers by William Eley from 1826, which achieved $112,500 (est. $50/80,000)

MASTERWORKS
10 November
Auction Total: $158.7 Million
High Estimate: $82.9 Million
100% Sold by Lot
Sotheby’s held its first auction of Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon on 10 November, with an evening sale that offered a curated selection of her most significant fine art. Bidders across the globe competed enthusiastically for works spanning 400 years of art history and across mediums, reflecting Mrs. Mellon’s eclectic and renowned taste.

The auction was led by two paintings by Mark Rothko that both exceeded expectations: Untitled from 1970, which achieved $39,925,000 (est. $15/20 million), and Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) from 1955, which fetched $36,565,000 (est. $20/30 million) . Both works had remained in the Mellons’ collection for more than four decades.

JEWELRY & OBJECTS OF VERTU
20 & 21 November
Auction Total: $45 Million
High Estimate: $20.7 Million
96.5% Sold by Lot
On 20 & 21 November, collectors eagerly vied for jewelry and objets of vertu from Mrs. Mellon’s collection that evoked her celebrated style. In the evening session, Mrs. Mellon’s Magnificent and Rare Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond sold for a staggering $32,645,000 ($3,348,205 per carat) – a new world auction record total price for any blue diamond and a new world auction record for price-per-carat for any diamond**. The 9.75 carat, pear-shaped diamond was eagerly sought after by seven bidders who competed for 20 minutes for the extraordinary stone, ultimately selling to a Hong Kong private collector who named the stone The Zoe Diamond.


** The previous per-carat auction record for any diamond was $2,398,152, set by a 14.82 carat Fancy Vivid Orange Diamond at Christie’s in Geneva in November 2013. The previous auction record for any blue diamond was $24,311,191, set by the Wittelsbach Diamond at Christie’s London in December 2008.