NEW YORK.- Sotheby's announced today that on October 11-12, 2005, it will hold a single-owner sale of Property from the Estate of Mr. Laurance S. Rockefeller, who is remembered as a pioneering venture capitalist, a dedicated conservationist and a visionary philanthropist from one of America's most prominent families. Highly respected by policy makers and consulted by presidents, Mr. Rockefeller was deeply committed to both his charitable and business endeavors. With a discerning eye, he applied the same care to assembling his personal collection of paintings, ceramics, porcelain and ethnographic art.

The sale will include objects from his panoramic Fifth Avenue apartment, which overlooked Central Park, and his Rockefeller Center office in Manhattan, as well as his country home on the family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York, and other residences in Woodstock, Vermont, and Jackson, Wyoming. In his collection, Mr. Rockefeller combined his love for Eastern objects with fine paintings and decorations from Europe and the Americas, including works by Maurice Prendergast, Auguste Rodin, Odilon Redon and Henry Moore, among others. Property from the Estate will also be included in Sotheby's sales of Impressionist & Modern Art on November 2nd - 3rd; American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture on November 30th; Prints on October 28th - 29th; and Important Americana in January 2006. Comprised of over 800 items, the proceeds of the sale, estimated to bring in excess of $12 million, will benefit the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund, a charitable entity.

"We are deeply honored to have the opportunity to pay tribute to Laurance S. Rockefeller, a truly great American,"said James G. Niven, Vice Chairman of Sotheby's, North and South America. "He did so many good things in his life for others in a most dignified manner, combining his talents in business with great philanthropy, and had paramount involvement in institutions such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the New York Zoological Society and Princeton University among many others. It was my greatest privilege to have known him."

Elaine Whitmire, Senior Vice President and Sotheby's specialist in charge of the sale, commented: "Mr. Rockefeller's many interests were reflected in his collection. A man of refined taste and an understated style, he surrounded himself with fine art and objects that were special to him, and he incorporated his varied perspectives into his life and residences."

Laurance S. Rockefeller - Born in New York City in 1910, Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was the fourth of six children - Abby, John D. 3rd., Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop and David - of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Mr. Rockefeller graduated from Princeton University in 1932 with a major in Philosophy, and went on to study at Harvard Law School. In World War II he served in the Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1934 he married the former Mary French, his life-long partner until her death in 1997. Mr. Rockefeller was a brilliant businessman and quickly became adept at investing in new, promising enterprises in science and technology, thus becoming one of the nation's first venture capitalists. Throughout Mr. Rockefeller's life, he grappled with how to make effective use of his family's fortune and gave careful consideration to ways to improve the world around him. Over the course of his lifetime, Mr. Rockefeller led and served on many nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. He supported many educational institutions but had especially strong ties to Princeton University. His dedication to cancer research and care was evident in his position as chairman and trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1960-1982 and his fifty-year involvement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Mr. Rockefeller is perhaps best known for his work in conservation and the environment. Yale University historian, Robin W. Winks, author of Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation, called him one of the nation's "most visionary conservationists" and said: "Laurance Rockefeller's most important role in American life would be to take environmentalism as his domain and to carry it from the obscurity of a cultish subject to the highest point in the national agenda." His love of the outdoors began at a very early age when he traveled with his father to such places as Mount Desert Island in Maine and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, benefiting from the influence of public figures such as Horace Albright, first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and later National Park Service Director. Mr. Rockefeller felt strongly that the beauty and grandeur of the natural landscape helped to shape individuals and that recreation and leisure were vital components of the human experience. Mr. Rockefeller worked tirelessly to instill these values in the land conservation projects he pioneered, providing greater accessibility to the American public. In 1939, he was introduced to public service when New York's Governor Herbert Lehman appointed him to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which he subsequently served as president from 1970 to 1977. Mr. Rockefeller was active in the New York Zoological Society from 1935 - 1986, later becoming its honorary chairman. He established the American Conservation Association, led Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc. from 1940 to 1996 and was instrumental in creating the National Park Foundation. Mr. Rockefeller played a pivotal role in the development of several national parks, including the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the Virgin Islands National Park in St. John and, with his wife Mary, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont.