With $115 million, the winning bidder for “Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie” (Young Girl With Basket of Flowers) at Christie’s on Tuesday night took ownership of one of the most expensive Picassos ever sold. Included in the price: a whiff of association with its previous owners, a couple whose names were synonymous with wealth, taste and privilege.

The painting, along with dozens of other first-rate artworks and hundreds of pieces of furniture, ceramics, porcelain and knickknacks on sale this week, belonged to David and Peggy Rockefeller, potent symbols of New York society and formidable collectors and philanthropists.

That provenance prompted vigorous bidding at the auction house’s Rockefeller Center headquarters on Tuesday; many of the 44 pieces went for well over the high estimate and seven set new auction highs for their artists, including for Matisse and Monet.

“What do you think the greatest name in America is for wealth?” said the art adviser Neal Meltzer. “In the 21st century we have a new form of sovereign wealth and those individuals can relate to this family.”