Yves Saint Laurent Art Auction

The Financial Times reports that at 9am this Saturday morning the doors of the Grand Palais in Paris will open on an exhibition of the art collection formed by the couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his business and civil partner Pierre Bergé. The three-day, 733-lot art auction, organised by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associés, is expected to realise €200m-€300m (half the proceeds are to benefit scientific research in the fight against Aids). This is a sale that has it all: glamour, celebrity and, above all, objects of impeccable provenance, quality and rarity. Yves Saint Laurent also used his art collections as inspiration for his designs), eventually turning to modern painting, acquiring the “Demoiselles d’Avignon”, for instance, directly from Picasso’s studio and commissioning sumptuous art deco furniture. The first of many purchases made through the Parisian dealer Alain Tarica was Brancusi’s rough-hewn, totemic oak sculpture of the Parisian hostess Léonie Ricou, acquired from Léger’s widow for around $500,000 (€15m-€20m). The whole of Mondrian is summed up in three superlative works and their glorious Matisse, “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose” of 1911 (€12m-€18m), which has never been lined or varnished, dates from that rare phase in the artist’s oeuvre when he moves on from fauvism to orientalism, the Spanish fabric depicted featuring in many subsequent works. What is clear is that there was never any sense of hierarchy in their art collecting; every object, major or relatively minor, was there to add its own particular magic, and resonance, to the grander scheme. They were not in pursuit of trophies per se; rather, gathering pieces of a visual, intellectual and emotional jigsaw evoking that heroic age of early-20th-century French culture and creativity. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art