PARIS (AFP) — Bids for couturier Yves Saint Laurent's private art collection hit 206 million euros (261 million dollars) on Monday, making it the most expensive ever auctioned with two days still left to run.
Six world record bids for works by major modern artists, and dozens of lesser sales, confirmed the global reputation of the collection amassed over half a century by Saint Laurent and his lifelong companion Pierre Berge.
"I think Yves would've been very happy," Berge told the press.
Hundreds of buyers gathered under the spectacular glass and cast iron vaults of the Grand Palais exhibition hall on the banks of the Seine, transformed for the historic three-day event into a cavernous high-tech auction house.
The biggest bid for the night was for a Matisse painting, "Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet", which went for a record 32 million euros (40.7 million dollars), smashing the auctioneer's pre-sale estimate of 18 million euros.
By contrast, the much anticipated Pablo Picasso work "Musical Instruments on a Table" flopped. Bidding fell short of the 25 million euro guide price, the biggest in the collection, and the piece was withdrawn unsold.
"I'm very happy because now I can keep it," Berge said. "Not only did this sale attain an unexpected sum, but on top of that I won a Picasso."
Works by other artists, including Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and French innovator Marcel Duchamp, earned record sums, well above earlier estimates.
Buyers in furs filed past a marble minotaur statue of the first century AD and elegant hostesses in Saint Laurent's trademark dark tailored suits ahead of what had been widely dubbed the "Sale of the Century".
"This is once in a 100 years. It's a dreamlike event," said Misako Takaku, who flew in from Tokyo to take up a front row seat in an elegant black dress, hoping to add to her collection of works by Manet and Klee.
"In New York, everyone is talking about this. The Americans are not going anywhere at the moment because of the crisis but they're coming here to this," said Tina Japp, a German expert working for a Texan art dealership.
As the winter twilight cast dramatic shadows among the works, crowds of well-heeled international connoisseurs and bidders gathered in front of a huge screen where each item was to be displayed.
"It's a great event, very well staged," said art expert Pablo Schugurensky, who came to Paris from Seattle on behalf of a client. "Paris is the best place for this... the emotion and heart of the collection are here."
After Saint Laurent's death last June aged 71, Berge chose to part with the 732 pieces, collected to grace the couple's apartments and country retreats, from Paris' Left Bank to their Moroccan bolthole in Marrakech.
Museum buyers, dealers, collectors and wealthy art lovers from around the world snapped up all 1,200 seats and bids through 100 telephone lines rained in from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.
Celebrity wife Bianca Jagger and Viscount Linley, 13th in line to the British throne and chairman of Christie's, were among the celebrities present.
Berge, a 79-year-old business tycoon and patron of the arts, said before the sale that the collected works "reflect exactly who Yves was, and who I am."
"But the day Yves Saint Laurent died, I decided this collection had run its course," he said. "It was something we created together. Selling it was the only possible solution."
Paris modern art gallery the Musee d'Orsay drew general applause when it exercised the state's right to pre-empt any sale and stepped in to match winning private bids for a painting by Edouard Vuillard and another Ensor. Tuesday will focus on old masters, 19th-century art and Art Deco and end Wednesday with sculptures, archaeological pieces, ceramics and Asian art.
This will include two disputed 18th century Qing dynasty bronzes after a French judge threw out a last-ditch legal bid by a French-based Chinese art association to halt the sale of what it regards as looted goods.
Proceeds from the three-day auction will be split between medical research and the fight against AIDS, and a Berge/Saint Laurent Foundation honouring the designer's work.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
