Announcing the third and final auction from the Getty’s fall collection
After two major sales benefiting San Francisco arts and sciences institutions, Christie’s has announced the final auction from the Anne and Gordon Getty Collection.
The live auction, scheduled to take place in New York on October 18 and 19 with a simultaneous online sale ending on October 20, will focus on plots of land from the late Anne Getty’s childhood home, which was once a peach and walnut farm known as Wheatland. For the unincorporated Yuba County community where it is located.
The elegantly appointed farmhouse was decorated by Ann Getty in the style of an English country house with nods to her family’s English and Dutch heritage. Featured pieces include old Dutch paintings by Balthasar van der Ast and Nicholas van Veerendael, and English furniture and decorative arts, including pieces by Chippendale, Pierre Langlois, Innes and Mayhew as well as Matthew Boulton.
“Anne Getty’s keen eye for beauty found her final canvas at Wheatland Farm, where her refined taste harmoniously wove history, art and nature into a tapestry of timeless elegance,” said Jonathan Rendell, Christie’s Vice Chairman of the Americas. Statement issued by the auction house on Wednesday, September 13.
June sales of lots at the Gettys’ Berkeley Hills estate, known as the Temple of Wings, totaled $21,932,214, while an October 2022 sale focusing on their Pacific Heights mansion brought in more than $150 million. Proceeds from all three auctions benefit Bay Area arts and sciences organizations, including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of San Francisco, the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Symphony, the Berkeley Geological History Center, and the Leakey Foundation.
Gordon Getty is the billionaire son of J. Paul Getty, oil tycoon and founder of two museums bearing his name in Los Angeles. Gordon Getty, a composer and philanthropist, was married to Anne from December 25, 1964 until her death on September 14, 2020 from a heart attack.
Plans to sell their collection and distribute the funds were already underway at the time of Anne Getty’s death.
While Getty’s home on Broadway in Pacific Heights served as a public display venue for the group due to the number of concerts and charity events she hosted there, and Anne Getty used the Wings Temple in Berkeley as her personal space, Wheatland was primarily a family retreat. Anne Getty’s parents, William Gilbert, a dairy farmer, and Anna Gilbert (née Beckdam), founded the house in 1944.
In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle, Maria Santangelo, Anne and Gordon Getty’s chief curator, called the Wheatland auction the “culmination” of the family’s partnership with Christie’s.
The property itself will remain in the Gilbert family.
“She spent her whole life preserving it and building this property,” Santangelo said, noting that in decorating the house, Anne Getty referenced her parents’ heritage and prioritized comfort.
“But this is the comfort of Anne Getty, so you still have extraordinary pieces of furniture with these very personal and sometimes strange nods to her and her family.”
The large number of still life paintings in the auction featuring floral and fruit arrangements were part of Anne Getty’s desire to bring the beauty of Wheatland’s gardens and farm indoors. Among the most anticipated works at the auction is the painting “Fruit in a Crack Plate with Quinces, Roses, Shells and Insects” by the Dutch painter Van der Ast, who is famous for his still life paintings. The piece has a sale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. A painting by Ambrosius Boschaert I titled “Tulips, Roses, Lilies of the Valley, Forget-me-nots, Cyclamen, and Other Flowers in a Crack Porcelain Vase, with Shells on the Rim,” is expected to sell for between $400,000 and $600,000.
“La petite fille aux hortensias,” by French painter Jacques-Emile Blanche, continues the floral theme, but also focuses on a young girl, another recurring motif in Anne Getty’s tastes as a collector. The selling price of the work ranges between $300,000 and $500,000.
Many of the furniture pieces also showcase Anne Getty’s love of Asian antiques and Asian reference, such as George III’s English china, black and gilt Japanese cabinets, and gilt cabinets, which are estimated to sell for $200,000 to $300,000. This ebony and china mirrored bookcase from the early reign of George III is estimated to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.
“It’s a great mix across categories,” said Liz Siegel, head of distinguished and special collections at Christie’s. “It was very exciting for us at Christie’s to bring it to the market, especially with its sense of the whimsical, and how it ties different things together.”
Siegel pointed to arrangements of Dutch Delft porcelain fruit next to Old Master paintings as an example of that whimsy in how Anne Getty presented her Wheatland collections. The ceramic fruit sets are estimated to sell for $5,000 to $7,000.
Ann Getty’s expertise in antiques and decor extends beyond her homes and collecting to her own interior design firm, Ann Getty Associates.
“It’s been an amazing journey for this farmer’s daughter, because she still always loves to be thought of,” James Reginato, author of the 2022 book Growing Up Getty, told The Chronicle. “She became a museum curator herself. She was educated and knowledgeable.”
Contact Tony Bravo: tbravo@sfchronicle.com
