Bunny Mellon Auction: All Work Is Sold
Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as Bunny, spent her lifetime collecting whatever caught her eye, from antique porcelains and shaker baskets to abstract paintings by Rothko and Diebenkorn. Her legendary taste and style, from an era long gone, proved irresistible for scores of collectors who descended on Sotheby’s York Avenue salesroom on Monday night to see 43 “masterworks,†as the auction house called them, bringing prices that were well past anyone’s expectations. Artwork spanning 400 years attracted bidders from 32 countries and four continents. The evening brought $158.7 million, topping a high estimate of $121 million. All 43 works sold. A 1932 painting by Georgia O’Keeffe (pictured) sold for $3.1 million. It had adorned Bunny’s Virginia dining room.
