Rockefeller’s Léger mural sold by MoMA for US$6 million
A Fernand Léger mural was offered for US$6 million at Art Basel, while a companion piece by Henri Matisse is on loan to Houston museum
In 1938, Nelson Rockefeller, the 30-year-old scion of one of America’s greatest banking families, commissioned two modern French painters to decorate the fireplaces in his penthouse on Fifth Avenue.
The two murals—one by Fernand Léger, another by Henri Matisse—may soon reunite.
Earlier this month, Léger’s over 9-foot-tall canvas was a showstopper at Art Basel, the world’s largest modern and contemporary art fair. The work, depicting a plant-inspired abstract motif in primary colors, was consigned by the Museum of Modern Art and had the asking price of US$6 million, according to Galerie Gmurzynska, which offered the work and even built a fireplace maquette to display it.
Another major U.S. museum quickly placed the artwork on reserve, pending the approval of the board in September, said Mathias Rastorfer, Gmurzynska’s president. He declined to disclose the sale price. Typically, museums may receive a 10 per cent to 20 per cent discount on the secondary market deals.
“It’s one of those unique situations that you can do only at Art Basel,” he said. “You can bring, for the first time, a work of that provenance and place it with another museum.”
That lucky institution is the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, that has had the companion Rockefeller Matisse mural on display for almost three years. “The Rockefeller Léger stopped me in my tracks at Art Basel, and I am delighted that our colleagues at the Museum of Modern Art are willing partners in making this masterpiece available to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,” Gary Tinterow, director of the Houston museum, said in an email.
Rare Sale
While museums often sell art from their collections at auction, finding pieces consigned by a significant museum at an art fair is rare.
“In my experience, most museums use the auction process because it provides greater transparency,” said David Norman, a private art dealer and former co-chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department. “However, sometimes museums also place works privately” with dealers if they have clients willing to pay higher prices.