CHRISTIE'S three-day auction of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and businessman Pierre Berge's collection, which starts tonight in Paris, has been valued at $400-600 million.
It has been described as one of the most significant private collection sales in art-auction history. It is also becoming a political hot potato.
On Friday, a group of Chinese lawyers filed a motion in a French court to stop Christie's from auctioning off two antique bronze animal sculptures in the collection.
This follows recent comments by the Chinese Government that the Qing dynasty works had been stolen from Beijing's old imperial summer palace during the second Opium War with the French and British armies in 1860.
Christie's maintains Saint Laurent acquired the items legally. The court is expected to make its decision today, hours before the auction is due to start.
Saint Laurent died last June, aged 71. Berge, his long-time business and personal partner, decided to sell the contents of their Rue de Babylon apartment to fund the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, established in 2002, to preserve 5000 YSL haute couture outfits and 15,000 accessories, sketches and other items.
Berge has said he will also donate money to several charities, including AIDS research.
Several Australian collectors are believed to be interested in certain lots,although the Australian dollar's performance against a strong euro may deter some.
According to Ronan Sulich, Christie's representative in Australia, a number have purchased the boxed set of five catalogues.
"Because this is such a milestone in auction history, it's understandable a number of people in Australia will be interested," Mr Sulich told The Australian yesterday.
This weekend, an estimated 30,000 people braved chilly weather to queue outside Paris's Grand Palais exhibition centre to view the collection.
It was the first time the works had been seen publicly and many visitors waited up to four hours for the chance to view them.
The collection reflects the eclectic tastes of its owners. It includes statues from ancient Rome, 16th- and 17th-century German silverware, 19th-century tapestries, Impressionist oil paintings and early 20th-century decorative arts.
Saint Laurent and Berge were passionate 20th-century art collectors with a particular interest in the late-Impressionist and Modernist movements. Paintings by Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Edvard Munch, Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger and Pablo Picasso will also go under the hammer over the next three days.
Berge was always considered the financial brain behind Saint Laurent's fashion genius. But he, too, was a man of exceptional taste. Their collection, built over more than 40 years, is a tribute to both men's connoisseurship.
When he announced the auction last November, Berge, who first met Saint Laurent in 1958, told journalists the collection had come to the end of its life.
"I wanted this sale," Berge, 78, told them. "This collection could only have two destinies - end up in a museum, which would have been too onerous, or on the auction block.
"I chose the sale because I felt the collection would not be truly complete until the hammer fell on the last lot."
He added: "This sale is like a separation. You can continue to love, even after the divorce is final.
Source: The Australian
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