Auction of Yves Saint Laurent’s Art
By Christina Bohnstengel
One would have to be living under quite the unfashionable rock not to know the iconic legacy of designer Yves Saint Laurent. The fashion demigod passed away last year at 71 years old from brain cancer and left behind a fashion house built on avant-garde designs and testing society’s style boundaries. But the buzz on the streets today is not his popular pantsuit for women, but the art collection he left behind, described as one of the most impressive the world will ever see.
On February 23, the world will have their chance to validate those claims when Christie’s International will auction Saint Laurent’s art collection at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The collection includes more than 700 pieces that Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé collected over the course of 50 years. The auction, which has been dubbed the sale of the century by art aficionados, will include “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose,” the 1911 piece by Henri Matisse that is estimated to sell for $16 million to $23 million. Christie’s head of impressionist and modern art, Thomas Seydoux, explained the importance of this piece in Saint Laurent’s design philosophy. “This picture by Matisse is all about juxtaposition and defined balance between color and motif,” observes Seydoux. “That’s what Saint Laurent was all about: finding balance in his clothes between color and motif.”
An auction set to take the American stage in February includes the sale of a set of Abraham Lincoln’s lamps. The bronze and crystal lamps have not been seen on the market for 166 years and are estimated between $40,000-$70,000. The auction will take place on February 25 by Cohasco, Inc.
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