Pollock Work That First Sold for $306 Now May Fetch $18 Million
- Nelson Rockefeller acquired drip painting ‘Number 16’ in 1950
- Phillips executive calls it ‘an exquisite, small-scale gem’
A small Jackson Pollock painting originally purchased for $306 in 1950 by future U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller may fetch $18 million next month, when a struggling Brazilian museum puts it on the auction block.
“Number 16" will be the top lot of the 20th century and contemporary art evening sale at Phillips on Nov. 15 in New York. The seller is Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, which received the drip painting in 1952 as a gift from Rockefeller, a scion of the family that helped establish New York’s Museum of Modern Art.