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‘Sale of the Century’ for Saint Laurent art collection
One of the world’s great private art collections, amassed over half a century by fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge, goes on view this weekend before it is sold.
One of the world’s great private art collections, amassed over half a century by fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge, goes on view this weekend before it is sold.
After Saint Laurent’s death last June aged 71, Berge opted to part with the 732 treasures that graced the couple’s homes. The auction on February 23-25 is expected to fetch $392 million.
Including works by Picasso, Mondrian and Matisse as well as old masters, Art Deco pieces and antique bronzes, the collection goes on display from Saturday at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Already coined ‘the sale of the century’, proceeds are to go to a Berge/Saint Laurent Foundation honouring the designer’s work and to a fund for scientific research and the fight against AIDS.
From a Cubist-period Picasso to a Brancusi sculpture never seen in public and a rare Eileen Gray designer chair, the couple decorated their homes in a crossover of styles that came to epitomise the very top in Parisian taste.
