Getty estate fine art auction in Berkeley Hills fetches $22 million

A lavish, Greco-Roman temple tucked away in the Berkeley Hills is a little less grandiose after Christie’s auction house finalized sales this week of nearly $22 million worth of Tiffany lamps, classical paintings, artisanal textiles and other furnishings from the storied property.

Acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1994, the philanthropists’ home — known as the Temple of Wings — was ornately decorated with hundreds of artifacts that transformed the space into an ode to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This month, two separate online sales and a live auction Wednesday in New York City offered up 400 of those artifacts. Christie’s staff spent more than a month at the Berkeley property, which was built in 1914 as a home and dance studio, loading furniture and artworks onto trucks destined for a Long Island warehouse to be individually reviewed and cataloged.

“We did our very best to keep all of that property together in the exhibition as she had in the home, so that visitors can try to step into her world a little bit and experience the objects as she experienced them,” said Annsley McKinney, a junior specialist with Christie’s. “They all really speak to each other in conversation — the fine art, the furniture, the textiles — and as you spend more time with it, you can really see her vision and how it’s woven through everything. It’s amazing she did it all herself.”

Sold for $7 million, “A Coign of Vantage,” an 1895 Romanticism painting by Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, was the highest-ticket item — selling for more than double its estimated price. Depicting three luxuriously clothed women peering down at a waterfront below, the painting elicited similar views from the Temple of Wings, overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

“The Bath of Psyche,” an oil painting by British artist Frederic Leighton, was auctioned for $1.6 million. A revival of Victorian art, the piece depicts the goddess Psyche living blissfully in the palace of Cupid, the god of love, which is adorned with columns similar to those supporting the Temple of Wings.

And rounding out the top three price tags, a “Wisteria” table lamp by Tiffany Studios, crafted from a kaleidoscope of leaded glass and patinated bronze in 1903, sold for $945,000.

The landmark auctions’ proceeds will be distributed to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera. In October, Christie’s held 10 sold-out auctions of 1,500 works of art, jewelry and textiles previously exhibited within the Gettys’ Pacific Heights home in San Francisco, which fetched more than $150 million for the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

Ann Getty, who died in September 2020 at the age of 79, was the sole mastermind behind the world-class collection inside the Temple of Wings.

Designed by famed architect Bernard Maybeck, the property originally served as a dance studio for Florence Treadwell Boynton, who hosted expressive, interpretive classes for decades of students. The studio’s teachings upheld the legacy of Boynton’s childhood friend, Isadora Duncan, whose then-innovative movements were inspired by the ocean and ancient Greek artwork, according to the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Once the Gettys purchased the modern day complex, located at 2800 Buena Vista Way, it transformed into the couple’s oasis and retreat away from city life, according McKinney, who spent months researching the lore behind the ornate estate and its collection inside.

McKinney said Ann Getty, a renowned interior designer, collector and benefactor of arts and culture, had an eye to pay homage to the Berkeley palace’s original owners — bringing the natural beauty of the home’s exterior indoors. To honor that work, she said Christie’s aimed to build the auction’s catalog around the way each item had already been carefully arranged.

Ellanor Notides, Christie’s west coast chairman, said Berkeley and the larger Bay Area has a rich history of collecting. Locally, she said Christie’s has previously sold collections from art critic Peter Selz, curator Connie Lewallen and photographer Thérèse Bonney.

Notides praised Ann Getty’s distinct ability to acquire individual pieces across hundreds of different auctions — pairing each of them with a comprehensive vision to bring the estate together.

“I think the story of Mrs. Getty is so often about a collection that’s been put together with the help of an advisor or designer, but the fact of it is she really had done this; it’s all about her aesthetic, her eye, her dedication to what she’s doing,” Notides said. “I can’t unpack a suitcase and put it away, so the fact that she’s unpacked all of this…