Econ_May_05

82 Books and arts

The Economist

May 5th 2018

FTER the death in1967 ofAlice B. Toklas,

longtime partner of Picasso’s patron

Gertrude Stein, David Rockefeller made

one of the wisest moves of his art-collect-

ing career. The art that Stein had amassed

in Paris before the second world war—

some of the best paintings Cézanne and Pi-

casso ever produced—has long been con-

sidered one of the finest collections of the

20th century. Stein’s heirswanted it to go to

a museum, but Rockefeller, who by then

had been a trustee of theMuseumofMod-

ern Art (

) for two decades, knew it

was beyond any institution’smeans.

He put together a syndicate, which

bought the collection for $6.8m (around

$50m today). The group included his

brother Nelson, governor of New York;

William Paley, chairman of Columbia

Broadcasting System; and John Hay “Jock”

Whitney, publisher of the

NewYork Herald

Tribune

. Each was to choose one painting

for his personal collection, the rest going to

museums. They met on a December after-

noon in

’s oldWhitneywing, draw-

ing lots froma felt hat to decide the order in

which the selections would be made.

Rockefeller drewlast, but the slip he picked

wasmarked “1”.

Going first, he chose the picture that

everyone but Nelson coveted, a rare early

Picasso portrait painted in 1905 when the

artist was 24. Rockefeller and his wife, Peg-

gy, hung “YoungGirl with a Flower Basket”

(pictured) in the library of theirManhattan

home, where it joinedMatisse’s “Reclining

Nude withMagnolias”. The librarywas re-

decorated tomatch.

Both paintings are among 893 lots from

the Rockefeller collection to be auctioned

by Christie’s in New York over three days,

starting on May 8th (671 extra lots will be

sold online). The sale is expected to be the

biggest ever by a single owner, set to sur-

pass the $484m raised by the Yves Saint

Laurent auction in Paris in 2009. The Picas-

so, from the cheery rose period of 1904-06

that followed his more sombre blue per-

iod, is estimated to fetch $100m. No rose-

period Picasso has come to market since

“Boy with a Pipe” went for $104m in 2004.

TheMatisse should raise $70m.

The auction also includes art fromAfri-

ca, India and China, a legacy of Rockefel-

ler’s travels as head of Chase Manhattan

Bank and friend to successive

CIA

bosses

and Henry Kissinger. But the bulk of it rep-

resents the taste of a rich, cultured Ameri-

can of his generation: fine English silver,

French Impressionist paintings, Meissen

porcelain from Germany and beautiful

American landscapes by Edward Hopper,

Charles Sheeler, Thomas Hart Benton and

Georgia O’Keeffe. There are Monets and

Manets, a large collection of antique

woodendecoybirds and 67 painteddinner

services, none of which goes in the dish-

washer. Now it will all be dispersed.

To land the sale, Christie’s fended off

competition from Sotheby’s and provided

the Rockefellerswith a huge guarantee, en-

suring the estate is paid promptly. The auc-

tion house spent sixmonthsmarketing the

collection abroad, launching a roadshow

in Hong Kong in November, then taking

the Matisse to Beijing along with a Monet

landscape and a rare blue-and-white Chi-

nese porcelain “dragon” bowl.

Estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, that

is bound to fetch much more. Chinese col-

lectors are keen on buying back their own

art as well as on acquiringWestern trophy

works (three years ago a Shanghai taxi

driver turned billionaire paid $170m for a

Modigliani nude). In accordance with the

terms of Rockefeller’s will, all the proceeds

will be given to charity.

The Rockefeller sale

Manet, Monet,

money

The Rockefellers’ treasures are set to be

dispersed around theworld

Luck of the draw

Maximalist fiction

Tick, tock

NAone-way bus ride to Rikers

Island, NewYorkCity’s infamous

prison, Nuno DeAngeles’s thoughts turn

to René Descartes, whose “mind-body

dualism” is “the only out he sees right

now…There’s two of himand only one’s

going in.” Descartes and Rikers are

among the unlikely conjunctions in

Sergio de la Pava’s expansive newnovel,

“Lost Empress”, a 600-pagemelting pot

of criminal-justice policy, American

football andmetaphysics.

When her ailing father divides up his

football empire, Nina Gill inherits the

underdog team, Paterson Pork, while the

Dallas Cowboys are left to her brother.

Nina vows to usurp the

NFL

with a rival

football league. She also has her eye on a

different prize: a long-lost painting by

Salvador Dalí, hidden somewhere be-

hind the barbedwire ofRikers. Nuno, a

brainy criminal, aims to retrieve it for her

before time runs out.

Literally. Aswell as a searing critique

ofAmerican society, “Lost Empress” is a

countdown to the apocalypse, an im-

pending doom that rests on parallel

worlds, a football pass and a biblical

flood. The bookoscillates between

hilarious surrealismand shocking reali-

ty. As in his first novel, “ANaked Singu-

larity”, Mr de la Pava (a public defender)

deploys his expertise in amaximalist

form reminiscent of Thomas Pynchon

andDavid FosterWallace. Legal tran-

scripts jostlewith diagrams of “Time”

and the prison’s “Inmate Rule Book”.

Besides Nina’s andNuno’s, other

stories unfold. A911-call operator reaches

breaking point. An Italian pastor at-

tempts to bringGod to the incarcerated.

Cancerous cellsmultiply in a young

man’s brain. Occasionally the tone of

the hyperintelligent narrator blurs the

distinctions between the characters. But

Mr de la Pava’s psychological insights

compensate for that glitch.

Withmessianic fervour, he conjures

upmarginalised voices and the horrors

ofmass incarceration, against a backbeat

of sporting thrills and that apocalyptic

crescendo. Describing a court motion of

Nuno’s, the narrator enjoins readers to

“thinkabout a literaryworkundertaken

in the literal pursuit of freedom, which is

to say life”. Theywill not have to think

for long: they are reading one.

Lost Empress.

By Sergio de la Pava.

Pantheon; 640 pages; $29.95. To be published

in Britain in August by MacLehose Press; £20

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News"

VK.COM/WSNWS