The "celebrity sale" is a tradition at Christie's, which can boast of having put the partial estates of Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando up for auction. Christie's latest such sale offered the estate of Maria Felix, the Mexican film star of the 1940 and '50s. Though lesser known to American audiences (she never learned English), Felix was a renowned beauty and fashion icon in both Mexico and much of Western Europe.

Going into the July 17–18 auction, Christie's was confident that a global clientele of Felix fans keen to own a unique piece of celluloid history would show up in New York. The auction, after all, offered the complete contents of her Mexico City and Cuernava homes, with Christie's ground floor artfully reconstructed to afford a (lavishly decorated) homey feel.

Felix's collection included about 60 paintings, most of them portraits of herself. Antoine Tzapoff's, done in tropical colors, assaults the eye with its sheer vibrancy. Still, his Doña con Porcelana went for $38,400, a comfortable $15,000 above its mid-range estimate. The top sellers, though, were two exquisite paintings by Leonora Carrington and a charcoal drawing by Diego Rivera (right). The subject continues to be (surprise!) Maria Felix, but these works stand out for their vivid re-imaginings of Maria as heroines from myth and scripture. Carrington's triptych Sueño de Sirenas (below) features her subject as a different-colored mermaid on each panel—a sort of surrealist altarpiece to the self (complete with an ornately carved frame). At $609,600, it was the highest selling piece in the auction. Madre, Rivera's striking portrait, depicts Maria Felix as the Madonna. In the sketch her mouth is soft, but her eyes are sharp; her posture is erect, yet she cradles the child at her breast with warmth. It sold for $352,000, more than twice its low-range estimate.

The rest of the 600 lots comprised furniture, an exceptionally large collection of Jacob Petit porcelain, Christian Dior couture, and movie memorabilia, including scripts annotated by Felix. Her extensive furniture collection had an overwhelmingly rococo feel: the galleries abounded with secretaire cabinets paneled with images of Fragonard-like women gazing coquettishly alongside quaint pastoral scenes. These made one wonder whether such ornately embellished pieces would have a place in the modern home (though one such secrétaire sold for $307,200). Of course, imagining Ms. Felix at ease, or at least in portrait-ready repose, in her robustly decorated mansion was considerably less challenging.

—Emily Cregg