The news, which broke in January 1968, that Gertrude Stein’s collection was up for sale set the New York art world abuzz with excitement. A bevy of French and American lawyers, acting on behalf of Allan Stein’s three children, worked around the clock to remove the paintings from Paris before the French government could prevent their export. The Museum of Modern Art was eager to acquire six of the best Picassos, but the Steins had set the condition that the works—thirty-eight by Picasso and nine by Juan Gris—must be sold together as a single collection, independently valued at $6.8 million. The museum’s trustee David Rockefeller made a proposition to four of his colleagues on the board: that they club together to purchase the collection in its entirety, and pledge to donate six paintings to MoMA, with the rest to be shared among themselves. The syndicate prevailed, and on the afternoon of December 14, 1968, the five men met in a back room of the museum, leaned the paintings against the walls, and drew lots from an old felt hat to determine the order in which they would select works for their private collections. Rockefeller went first, and chose Young Girl with a Flower Basket, which (despite Gertrude’s dislike of the legs) she and Leo had bought in 1905 for $30. It was now valued at almost a million dollars.
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