By Andrew Johnson

The Chinese businessman who sabotaged the controversial Paris sale of two sculptures claimed by the Beijing government from Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection last week may have had the best of intentions. But in preventing the sale as a “political protest”, Cai Mingchao may well have shot himself in the foot.

According to an art expert, the businessman who Mr Cai beat at the record-breaking Christie’s auction to secure the Qing dynasty bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit was planning to give them back to China.

The two sculptures were part of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection, which was sold in Paris last week. Their sale had angered Beijing, which argued that as the works were looted in 1860, they should be returned to China.

China’s government had asked collectors not to bid on the bronze heads – originally part of a collection of 12 animal heads depicting the signs of the Chinese zodiac at the Summer Palace outside Beijing, which was destroyed and looted by British and French troops during the opium wars.

On the third day of the Saint Lauren auction, which raised a total of £307m, three businessmen became locked in a tussle for the bronze heads, which were eventually sold to Mr Cai for £13.9m each.

Once he was safely out of France, however, Mr Cai, general manager of the Xiamen Harmony Art International Auction Company in Fujian province in south-eastern China, announced that he wasn’t going to pay for the heads as a political protest.

In one online poll in China, Mr Cai’s action was supported by 70 per cent of respondents, although the Chinese government has distanced itself, saying “it was totally the action of an individual”.

France’s complex laws mean that Christie’s cannot simply pass the sculptures on to the next highest bidder. Pierre Bergé, the lover of Yves Saint Laurent who decided to sell the collection after the fashion designer’s death last year, has said he will now keep them. Mr Bergé had poured oil on the row with China when he said he would return the sculptures once China gave “Tibet its freedom”.

Writing in The Economist this week, however, Sarah Thornton, an art market expert, claimed that at least one of the under-bidders, who offered £10.7m for the heads, was intending to give one of them back to the Chinese as a gift. It is possible that the other under-bidder may also have been intending to give one or both statues to the Chinese. Someone with such wealth is likely to be a businessman with interests in China.

Ms Thornton said: “The consensus among art historians is that the heads are not aesthetically significant, so connoisseurs of Chinese art are not dying to collect them. Their importance is symbolic and political. For that reason, it’s possible that both under-bidders intended to gift them.”

The post Chinese art auction stunt backfires first appeared on Indian Art News.

A Chinese bronze rabbit head, (R) and bronze rat head (L), which sold for 14 million euros each. Photo / AP

PARIS – An auction dispersing the vast art collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent lived up to expectations billing it as the “sale of the century”.

The auction exceeded sales estimates and wrapped up without incident on Wednesday despite a storm of controversy over two lots China said had been stolen and insisted it wanted returned.

The collection of Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge brought in a total of more than 373 million euros (NZ$932.8 million) – and broke several world records – over the three-day auction, said the organiser, Christie’s.

That was well over the 200 million-300 million euros the 733-lot sale had been expected to fetch.

Berge told reporters at the closing news conference he was “very, very happy with the result”.

“I considered that with the death of Yves Saint Laurent that this collection had reached its end, that it was finished,” Berge said.

“I am sure that those who bought these works of art are going to welcome them … with the same passion that Yves and I had during so many years.”

Saint Laurent, who is widely credited with modernising women’s wardrobes by popularising ladies’ pants, died last June aged 71, after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

The sale wrapped up with the much-anticipated sale of two rare bronze fountain heads – depicting a rat and a rabbit – that disappeared from China’s Summer Imperial Palace in 1860. The Chinese government said it wanted the items removed from the sale and returned.

The disputed bronzes were sold to an unidentified telephone bidder or bidders for 14 million euros each.

Christie’s officials declined to name the winning bidders, comparing the auctioneer’s duty to protect buyers’ privacy to a doctor’s duty to protect that of his patient.

Berge added only that “it was not me”.

Other pieces sold on Wednesday night included a 16th century, gilded Buddha statue, also from China, a collection of daggers from Turkey and India and a pair of Louis XV velvet couches.

Earlier in the week, Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, (The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric), a 1911 oil painting by Henri Matisse, fetched 32.1 million euros. That was a record auction price for a work by the French artist, Christie’s said.

A rare Picasso from the Spanish artist’s cubist period that was expected to be the sale’s highest-fetching lot did not sell in the end.

Other top-selling pieces included a wooden sculpture by Romania’s Constantin Brancusi that fetched 26 million euros, a 1922 painting by Piet Mondrian that had inspired Saint Laurent’s iconic 1965 shift dress, and a snake embellished armchair that set a record for a piece of 20th-century furniture, selling at 21.9 million euros.

On Wednesday, though, it was the Chinese bronzes that stole the spotlight.

China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage wrote to Christie’s last week urging it to stop the auction, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

An agency spokesman said Christie’s had replied, but declined to discuss specifics, the report said.

Berge insisted the auction should go ahead as planned, and on Monday a French judge refused a request to halt the sale of the artefacts.

The issue threatened to further strain relations between France and China, frayed over French boycotts in the run-up to last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s talks with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese accuse of supporting Tibetan separatism.

Chinese anger led to protests and calls for a boycott of French products.

On Wednesday, dozens of people stood outside the auction’s venue distributing pamphlets urging the pieces’ return – but the well-heeled crowd of buyers and spectators breezed by them.

The sale was held at the Grand Palais, a mammoth glass-and-steel monument by the Seine River.

Hundreds of buyers placed their bids under heat lamps dangling from the towering ceiling, while Christie’s staffers took telephone bids on dozens of specially installed phone lines.

From the start, the auction appeared to ignore the controversy – and the world financial crisis.

That was welcome news for a world art market worried that the global economic crisis is cutting into art investments, and for Christie’s, which was betting on the auction to boost its flagging fortunes. The venerable auction house has announced hundreds of redundancies.

Berge said the results proved he had been right to ignore the advice of friends telling him to hold on to the collection until the crisis abated.

They showed that “when we provide buyers with quality works of art, the buyers are there”, he said. A large portion of the proceeds from the sale are to support AIDS research, he added.

Saint Laurent and Berge started collecting art in the 1950s, when the designer catapulted to fame at the Paris fashion house Christian Dior.

As their fortunes grew with the launch of Yves Saint Laurent’s own line, they continued to collect, working largely with private dealers and buying what caught their eye.

One of the most influential and enduring designers of the 20th century, Saint Laurent is credited with helping empower women by reinventing pants as a sleek, elegant staple of the female wardrobe.

He is also remembered for his ladies’ tuxedo, see-through blouses, safari jackets and glamorous gowns that remain stylish decades after they hit the catwalks.

Luxury company the Gucci Group acquired the Yves Saint Laurent brand in 1999.

The post Saint Laurent sale brings in $932.8m first appeared on Indian Art News.

PARIS.- The three-day sale of the magnificent Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé at the Grand Palais, offered by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, realised in total €373,935,500 / £332,802,595 / $483,835,144. A remarkable 95.5% of lots sold by lot, and 93% sold by value. This historic sale set a world record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction, was the highest grossing sale in Europe on record, and set multiple world records for Impressionist and Modern Art, 20th Century Decorative Arts, Silver, Sculpture and Works of Art. One of the most exceptional and significant collections of art in private hands, it generated unprecedented interest from bidders throughout the world and pre-sale estimates for both the sale as a whole and the individual works, were significantly exceeded.

Highlights of these exceptional and rare works of art, each with impeccable provenance, captured the attention of international collectors as they were exhibited by Christie’s, in association with Pierre Bergé and Associates, in New York, London, Brussels and Paris in the last four months. The spectacular public exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this unique curated collection of art and to experience the evocative atmosphere of Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment at rue de Babylone, was viewed by over 30,000 visitors over 3 days (21-23 February), and over 1500 people gathered for each of the sales, held in a specially built saleroom, the largest in Christie’s history.

The top lot of the sale was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million. 16 works of art sold for over €5 million and 61 works of art sold for over €1 million. Numerous world auction records were set in each sale, and in almost every part of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Collection, a tribute to their discerning eye for provenance and museum quality.

The proceeds of the sale will go to the Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, created to prolong the history of the House of Yves Saint Laurent, and to a new foundation that will be set up for scientific research and the fight against AIDS.

Pierre Bergé said: “The sale of the collection that I had built in partnership with Yves Saint Laurent draws to a close and has been a triumph. My expectations have been fully realized. I thank Christie’s for the organization of both the preview exhibitions and the sale itself in the setting of the Grand Palais. I offer my gratitude to the public who came in huge numbers and were prepared to queue patiently for many hours. The results of the sale exceed our highest expectations and confirm the potential of the Paris marketplace to rise to such an occasion. The results also demonstrate that even in a difficult economic climate, works of art of great quality preserve their power and their value.”

Impressionist and Modern Art
On 23 February, at the inuagural session of the sale, the most significant collection of Impressionist and Modern Art in private hands sold for a total of €206 million / £183 million / $266 million, a world record for a private collection at auction and the highest total achieved for any Impressionist and Modern Art sale in Europe. The top lot of the evening was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction, and 8 works of art sold for over €5 million. 25 works of art sold for over €1 million (24 lots for over £1 million / 25 lots over $1 million). 7 world records were set for artists at auction, including Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian, de Chirico, Duchamp, Klee and Ensor.

Thomas Seydoux, International Head of Impressionist and Modern Art said: “This record sale, which achieved the highest total for any Impressionist and Modern Art sale in Europe, and was the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction in the world, was a tribute to two great men: Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. Collectors, gathered in the largest saleroom that Christie’s has ever seated, responded to the opportunity of a lifetime to buy into a Collection carefully assembled over almost five decades. There was significant bidding on the telephone from a deep pool of international buyers and many rare and exceptional works, each with impeccable provenance and condition, set world record prices for artists at auction. This historical sale demonstrated the timeless appeal of Impressionist and Modern art, this long-established and highly valued category.”

Other major highlights of the sale included:

•Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.), a magnificent example of Constantin Brancusi’s earliest and enigmatic sculptures in wood sold for €29.1 million / £25.9 million / $37.7 million (estimate: €15,000,000 – 20,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

•Three abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian, which each belong to key stages in the artist’s work, and express degrees of tension between line, form and colour were all sold above their high estimates. Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir, 1922 sold for €21.5 million / £19.1 million / $27.9 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction; Composition avec grille 2, 1918 sold for €14.4 million / £12.8 million / $18.6 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), and Composition I, 1920, sold for €7.0 million / £6.2 million / $9.0 million (estimate: €5,000,000-7,000,000).

•Fernand Léger’s great mechanical paintings of 1918 and 1919, painted during one of his most brilliant periods drew significant attention: Composition, dans l’usine, 1918 sold for € 5.5 million / £4.9 million / $7.1 million (estimate: €6,000,000 – 8,000,000). La tasse de thé, 1921, sold for € 11.4 million / £10.2 million / $14.8 million (estimate: €10,000,000 – 15,000,000).

•The ready-made masterpiece “La Belle Haleine – Eau de Voilette” by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance by Man Ray in 1921, witnessed fierce bidding in the room and realized € 8.9 million / £7.9 million / $11.5 million, nearly 9 times its estimate of €1,000,000 – 1,500,000, a world auction record for the artist.

•James Ensor’s monumental Le désespoir de Pierrot, the most important work of art by the artist to be presented at auction in the last 25 years, sold for € 4.9 million / £4.4 million / $6.4 million (estimate: €2,000,000 – 3,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

•Three works of art were acquired by two of the most important French museums in Paris: Les Lilas by Edouard Vuillard and Au Conservatoire by James Ensor was bought by the Museé d’Orsay, and Il Ritornante by Giorgio de Chirico was bought by the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Old Master and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings
The sale of Old Master and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings on 24 February totalled €22.2 million / £19.7 million / $28.7 million. 75% of lots sold by lot, and 90% sold by value. Drawings from the 19th century, predominantly portraits by Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones generated significant interest and Portrait d’Alfred et Elisabeth Dedreux by Theodore Gericault, the figurehead of French Romantic painting, was the top lot of the sale and realised €9.0 million / £8.0 million / $11.6 million (estimate: €4,000,000 – 6,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction. 5 works of art sold for over €1 million (4 lots for over £1 million / 6 lots over $1 million). 6 new world auction records for artists were set.

Cécile Bernard, Ketty Gottardo and Etienne Hellman, specialists in charge of the sale said: “The works of art offered, which ranged over four centuries, from the early 16th Century to the early 20th Century, mirrored this unique collection’s breadth and exceptional diversity. Each of the twenty-four works that were sold had exceptional provenance and an impressive art historical pedigree; thus attracting very active bidding from top international collectors and connoisseurs”.

Major highlights of the sale included:

•Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ elegant Portrait de la comtesse de la Rue, 1890, sold for €2.0 million / £1.8 million / $2.6 million (estimate: €2,000,000,000 – 3,000,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction

•Jacques-Louis David’s Portrait d’homme de profil, which has long been thought to be a self-portrait sold for €577,000 / £513,530 / $746,580 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.

•Théodore Gericault’s Portrait d’Alfred et Elisabeth Dedreux sold for €9.0 million / £8.0 million / $11.6 million (estimate: €4,000,000 – 6,000,000), a world record for the artist, and a world record for any ‘non-impressionist’ painting from the 19th Century. International collectors and connoisseurs where quick to recognise the significance of this painting, its relevance within Géricault’s oeuvre, its status as an icon of early romantic portraiture, and its particularly unforgettable atmosphere.

• Arnold Böcklin’s Odysseus and Polypheme, 1986, sold for €577,000 / £513,530 / $746,580 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.

Silver, Miniatures and Objets de Vertu
The afternoon sale of Silver, Miniatures and Objets Vertu on 24 February totaled €19.8 million / £17.6 million / $25.7 million and set a new world auction record for a silver sale. An impressive 100% of the works sold to an audience of over 1,000 people. The star lot of the session, which saw over 111 breath-taking lots of silver, silver-gilt and gold come under the hammer, was the Osterode cup, a silver-gilt quadruple cup, 1649, which sold for €853,000 / £759,000 / $1.1 million (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000). The collection of Hanover cups alone, one of the most exciting collections of early German silver to appear on the market for years, totalled €6.1 million / £5.4 million / $7.89 million. Collectors also bid fiercely for drinking cups in the form of lions, bears, horses, deer, a unicorn, bull, swan, owl and even an elephant with soldiers in the castle turret on its back.

Anthony Phillips, International Director, Silver said: “The sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s silver collection was a record sale. Not only was it the most valuable silver sale ever in the world, but numerous world records were established. A truly international group of collectors responded positively to the museum-quality pieces of rare silver, silver-gilt and gold and in particular to the collection of Hanover cups”.

Major highlights of the sale included:

• The top lot of the huge standing cups – formerly in a German royal collection was the Osterode cup which sold for €853,000 / £759,170 / $1,103,697 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000).

• A 16th century silver hunting bear sold for €313,000/ £278,570 / $404,990 (estimate: €80,000 – 120,000).

• An important Louis XIV rose-cut diamond and enamelled gold-mounted presentation miniature, portrait by Jean I Petitot (1607-1691), circa 1680 which fetched €481,000 / £428,090 / $622,366 (estimate: €200,000 – 300,000). This work was acquired by the Louvre.

• The remarkable pair of German gold and enamel tazze, probably Augsburg, circa 1730 which sold for €481,000 / £428,090 / $622,366 (estimate: €200,000-300,000).

20th Century Decorative Arts
The 24 February evening sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s meticulously selected group of Art Deco treasures, a sophisticated celebration of one of the most brilliant chapters in Parisian cultural life, realised a total of €59.1 million / £52.6 million / $76.5 million, a world record for a collection of 20th century decorative arts. 95% of lots sold by lot, and 98% sold by value. The star lot of the evening was Eileen Gray’s ‘Dragons’ armchair, circa 1917-1919, which achieved €21.9 million / £19.4 million / $28.3 million, a world record for a work of 20th century decorative art at auction, and a world record for the artist at auction. 10 works of art sold for over €1 million (10 over £1 million and 10 over $1 million). The auction saw a total of 12 artist records established.

Philippe Garner, International Head and Sonja Ganne, European Director, 20th Century Decorative Art & Design said: “Tonight’s sale was a homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and, of course, to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors.”

Leading highlights of the sale included:

• Eileen Gray’s ‘Dragons’ armchair, circa 1917-1919, originally in the collection of Suzanne Talbot, sold for €21.9 million / £19.4 million / $28.3 million, a world record for any work of 20th century decorative art at auction, and a world record for the artist at auction (estimate: €2,000,000-3,000,000). Gray’s unique Enfilade, circa 1915-1917, realised €3.9 million / £3.5 million / $5.1 million (estimate: €3,000,000-5,000,000).

• The Gustave Miklos pair of palm wood and lacquered bronze banquettes, 1928-1929, commissioned by Jacques Doucet, sold for €1.7 million / £1.5 million / $2.2 million (estimate: €2,000,000-3,000,000), a world auction record for the artist.

• Monumental in size and striking in design, the Jean Dunand pair of lacquered and gilt metal vases, 1925, stirred competitive bidding and sold for €3 million / £2.7 million / $3.9 million (estimate: €1,000,000-1,500,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

• Works by Claude Lalanne sold for prices that far exceeded their estimates and a spectacular set of fifteen bronze and galvanised copper mirrors, modelled as branches, 1974-1985, sold for €1.8 million / £1.6 million / $2.4 million (estimate: €700,000-1,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction. Specially commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent, in 1974, they took 11 years to complete.

• The sculptural YSL bar, François-Xavier Lalanne’s first commission from Yves Saint Laurent, and a centrepiece of the library in Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment in rue de Babylone sold for €2.7 million / £2.4 million / $3.5 million (estimate: €700,000-1,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

• A pair of floor lamps, 1930 by Eckart Muthesius commissioned by the Maharaja of Indore for his Modernist palace sold for €2.5 million / £2.2 million / $3.2 million (estimate: €400,000-600,000), far exceeding the world record for the artist at auction.

Sculpture and Works of Art
The afternoon session of the Sculpture and Works of Art sale on 25 February realised a total of €24.2 million / £21.5 million / $31.3 million. 95% of lots sold by lot, and 98% sold by value. The top lot was a 16th century bronze double head of Janus, unusual in both its iconography and its scale, which attracted committed bidding from a wide range of private and trade buyers and sold for €2.0 million / £1.8 million / $2.6 million (estimate: €100,000 – 200,000), a record for a 16th century French bronze. 5 works of art sold for over €1 million (4 lots for over £1 million / 6 lots over $1 million).

Donald Johnston, Director and Head of European Sculpture, said: “The depth and breadth of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s collection of sculpture was an inspiration. Seen in its entirety and splendour at the public exhibition at the Grand Palais, it captured the interest of a large number of new private buyers from all over the world. This culminated in one of the longest-lasting sculpture sales ever to be held. Over six hours, 278 lots works dating from the 13th to the 19th Century were sold, bringing the sale total to €24.2 million, triple its low estimate.”

Major highlights of the sale included:

• A group of parcel-gilt white painted carved wood allegorical busts representing the four continents, French, from the 18th century sold for €841,000 / £748,000 / $1 million (estimate: €200,000 – 300,000).

• An exquisite silver gilt and ruby mounted rock crystal vase, Milanese, from the late 16th or early 17th century, which was formerly in the French royal collection, sold for €529,000 / £470,810 / $684,473 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000).

• A bronze figure of Hermaphrodite, attributed to Gianfrancesco Susini sold for €625,000 / £556,250 / $808,688 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a bronze by the artist.

• A 17th century German turned ivory cup and cover sold for €457,000 / £406,730 / $591,312 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000), a world record for a German turned ivory.

• A Venetian parcel-gilt polychrome circular enamel ewer basin, circa 1500 sold for €421,000 / £374,690 / $544,732 (estimate: €180,000 – 220,000), a world record for any Venetian enamel.

Asian Art, Ceramics, Furniture, Islamic Art and Antiquities
The evening session of the Sculpture and Works of Art sale on 25 February, which included a wide range of Asian Art, Ceramics, Furniture, Islamic Art and Antiquities and conveyed Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s taste for exceptional decorative works, realised a total of €42.8 million / £38.1 million / $55.4 million. The top lots were exceptionally rare bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit made for the Zodiac Fountain of the Emperor Qianlong’s Summer Palace in China which each sold for €15.8 million / £14.0 million / $20.3 million. 3 works of art sold for over €1 million (3 over £1 million and 5 over $1 million). Other major highlights of the sale included:

• An important gilt and red lacquered wood figure of Buddha, China, Ming dynasty, 16th century, sold for €313,000 / £278,570 / $404,997 (estimate: €30,000 – 40,000).

• An impressive Roman marble minotaur, circa 1st-2nd century A.D., the focus of the apsidal terrace outside Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment at rue Babylone, sold for €913,000 / £812,570 / $1.6 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

• An exquisite over life-sized and imposing male marble torso, circa 1st-2nd century A.D., which stood in the entrance hall of rue Babylone, sold for €1.2 million / £1.1 million / $1.6 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

• A Louis XIV exotic tapestry, Gobelins, after a painting by Albert Eckhout and Frans Post, possibly woven in 1720 by Jean Lefebvre Fils sold for €553,000 / £492,170 / $715,527 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000).

• A set of eighteen Italian chairs from the Rococo period from the Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi in Genoa, which surrounded a monumental Art Deco dining table in marble and silvered bronze in rue Babylone, sold for €961,000 / £855,290 / $1.2 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

The post The Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Realises $483.8 Million at Christie’s first appeared on Indian Art News.

The Saint Laurent-Berge auction at the Grand Palais in Paris

Pulling in record prices for seven artists, the much-anticipated auction of Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection got off to a flying start on Day One’s sale of Impressionist and modern art. The $266 million tallied on Monday — a record auction for a private collection — is good news for the AIDS researchers who will get part of the proceeds; for Pierre Berge, the designer’s former companion and lifelong business partner who put their joint collection on the block; and for Christie’s and the entire art market, which hopes the stunning performance will be the shot in the arm needed to give the depressed market a boost in the wake of the financial crisis.

But don’t think for a minute that all this lavish spending at the Grand Palais in Paris might be an indication of a positive turn of events for the world’s economy. Indeed, it may be just the opposite. David Nahmad, one of the world’s top private art dealers who doubles as a major world currency trader, says the eagerness to invest cash in art is a very visible confirmation of the skepticism that investors have about the crippled financial system. “People today don’t know where to put their money. The banks are fragile, the hedge funds don’t exist anymore, stocks are weak,” says Nahmad. “It’s better to stick to art, something you can touch with your hand.”

The dwindling supply on the market of top Impressionist 20th century art means museum-quality work should offer stable — and potentially stratospheric — growth over the coming years. In 1979, two years before the record-setting 1911 Mattise would wind up in Saint Laurent’s hands, Nahmad paid about $300,000 for the piece. Although he is sanguine about the market, the dealer, based in Monte Carlo, Monaco, was staggered by Monday’s sale, which also netted records for Piet Mondrian (two of the Dutchman’s paintings sold for eight-digit figures), Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Klee and James Ensor. “It was the most amazing auction I’ve ever seen,” Nahmad said on the main floor just after the last lot sold. “There are still a lot of rich people in the world, and I think they are anticipating a future inflation. Governments are going to be printing more and more money.” (See pictures of money being printed in Germany.)

The auction market, of course, has its own unique calculation, driven as it’s said by the incalculable “price of two people’s desires.” Surprisingly, the only disappointment on Monday was that a late Cubist work by Picasso — Musical Instruments on a Table, which had the highest presale estimate, of some $30 million — went unsold. The Saint Laurent-Berge auction continues on Tuesday and Wednesday with the sale of rare furniture and antiquities, including two Chinese animal heads that Beijing says were pilfered and must be returned to China. Earlier on Monday, a Paris court rejected China’s bid to stop the sale.

Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of Impressionist and modern art for Christie’s London, is hoping that Monday’s record results will give a boost to future sales, after several auctions have taken place with extremely limited supply. “This was a special case,” she said of the Paris auction. “But we hope that this will help us unearth more masterpieces, to convince others that this is a good time to sell. We see tonight that people very much still want to invest in art.” Nevertheless, the same logic — and the shaky world financial system — may yet convince collectors to hold on to what they’ve got.

The post Amid Financial Crisis, Saint Laurent Art Sets Records first appeared on Indian Art News.

By Henry Samuel in Paris

It is set to be the biggest single-owner art auction in history, and includes paintings by Goya, Ingres, Matisse, Mondrian, Picasso, De Chirico and Andy Warhol.
The previous record of £104 million was set at Christies in 1998 for works owned by Victor and Sally Ganz. Many of the art on sale inspired Mr Saint Laurent’s haute couture designs.
The glittering hoard, which also includes ancient Roman works, Renaissance bronzes, art deco furniture and silver, and Limoges enamels, is being sold by Mr Saint Laurent’s long-time business partner and companion, Pierre Bergé.
The pair amassed the works together for their two Parisian apartments from 1972 until Mr Saint Laurent’s death.
“I don’t trust the afterlife”, Mr Bergé told yesterday’s Le Figaro newspaper.
“I preferred to organise everything while still alive, which Yves perhaps wouldn’t have done. I could only do this sale after his death. The page is turned”, he said.
The auction will be held by Christie’s Paris at the Grand Palais next February.
It will be held in association with Mr Bergé’s own auction house, Pierre Bergé & Associates. Proceeds will go to the Paris foundation the pair set up to preserve the Mr Saint Laurent’s work.
The sale will be a litmus test for the world art market, which has seen prices spiral upwards over the past three years.

The post Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection in ‘auction of the century’ first appeared on Indian Art News.

The auction will be held in association with Pierre Berge & Associates, the Paris auction house owned by the fashion designer’s former business partner, Christie’s said today in an e- mailed statement. The specific date and contents of the sale have yet to be announced, said London-based Christie’s.

Saint Laurent died last month, aged 71. He and Berge, who co- founded the Yves Saint Laurent couture house in 1961, amassed a collection of artworks that is believed to be worth up to 300 million pounds ($599 million), according to the Art Newspaper.

It said their collection features works by a range of contemporary artists and Old Masters that includes Picasso, Warhol, Mondrian, Matisse and Goya.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

The post Christie’s to Sell Yves Saint Laurent Art Collection first appeared on Indian Art News.