Opening Day of Yves Saint Laurent Collection Sets Record in Paris
A record total of €206 million (US$266 million) was achieved at the inaugural sale session of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé at the Grand Palais in Paris. The first of the three-day sale series from February 23rd to 25th, offered by Christie's in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, became the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction and realized the highest sum for any sale in Europe. The top lot of the evening, which featured 59 works of Impressionist and Modern art, was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million (US$46.4 million)—a new world record for a work by the artist at auction.
Christie's Great Estates was present at the historic auction, where magazines, property brochures, and a video presentation of luxury real estate were displayed. Click here for more information and photos from the sale.
(Pictured above, the inaugural sale session at the Grand Palais exhibition hall in Paris)
The Legendary Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
Christie's, in association with the Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, will offer the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Collection at the Grand Palais in Paris. The three-day sale from February 23rd to 25th, which is expected to realize between €200–300 million, will showcase one of the most important private collections ever to come onto the art market. Amounting to more than 700 objects, the collection was formed over the course of 50 years and consists of masterpieces of Modern Art, Art Deco, European furniture and works of art, antiquities, and Old Master and 19th–Century paintings and drawings, among others. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and to a new foundation Bergé has created to fund scientific research to fight AIDS.
(Pictured above, the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent)
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Abraham Lincoln's Original Re-election Speech Sells for a Record $3.44 Million at Christie's New York
The original 1864 victory speech, handwritten by Abraham Lincoln, was sold by Christie's New York on February 12, the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. The four-page document realized $3,442,500, a new world auction record for a Lincoln manuscript, a presidential manuscript, and any American historical document. The Speech was delivered at the White House on 10 November 1864, immediately after Lincoln's re-election to a second term as President. The precious manuscript remained with Lincoln's papers until 1916, when Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, presented it to New York Congressman, John A. Dwight, as thanks for his efforts to secure Congressional funding for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1926, Dwight's widow gave the document to the Southworth Library Association in Dryden, New York. Proceeds from the sale will fund construction of a new addition to the library.