A historic sale illustrating “Fifty years of creation by the most inventive bootmaker of the 20th century” garnered a final total of €620,000.

The result of a meeting with Roger Vivier’s son at a sale in Tangier in July  2009, the sale made quite a splash in the art and fashion world at the end of 2011. This collection, which was on loan to the Musée de la Chaussure in Romans, contained  350 remarkable prototypes (left foot), the ultimate symbols of elegance and refinement,  some of which were made especially for celebrities like  Elisabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Talitah Getty, John Lennon, Cary Grant and Cecil Beaton. Several record-making bids were obtained, including one for €19,000, which went to a pair of evening shoes designed for Princess Soraya.The highly active support of the French State (55 pre-emptions for the Musée de Romans), the Roger Vivier company, the Fédération Française de la Chaussure and various German and American museums was remarkable in this unique sale.A historic sale illustrating “Fifty years of creation by the most inventive bootmaker of the 20th century” garnered a final total of €620,000.

The result of a meeting with Roger Vivier’s son at a sale in Tangier in July  2009, the sale made quite a splash in the art and fashion world at the end of 2011. This collection, which was on loan to the Musée de la Chaussure in Romans, contained  350 remarkable prototypes (left foot), the ultimate symbols of elegance and refinement,  some of which were made especially for celebrities like  Elisabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Talitah Getty, John Lennon, Cary Grant and Cecil Beaton. Several record-making bids were obtained, including one for €19,000, which went to a pair of evening shoes designed for Princess Soraya.The highly active support of the French State (55 pre-emptions for the Musée de Romans), the Roger Vivier company, the Fédération Française de la Chaussure and various German and American museums was remarkable in this unique sale.A historic sale illustrating “Fifty years of creation by the most inventive bootmaker of the 20th century” garnered a final total of €620,000.

The result of a meeting with Roger Vivier’s son at a sale in Tangier in July  2009, the sale made quite a splash in the art and fashion world at the end of 2011. This collection, which was on loan to the Musée de la Chaussure in Romans, contained  350 remarkable prototypes (left foot), the ultimate symbols of elegance and refinement,  some of which were made especially for celebrities like  Elisabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Talitah Getty, John Lennon, Cary Grant and Cecil Beaton. Several record-making bids were obtained, including one for €19,000, which went to a pair of evening shoes designed for Princess Soraya.The highly active support of the French State (55 pre-emptions for the Musée de Romans), the Roger Vivier company, the Fédération Française de la Chaussure and various German and American museums was remarkable in this unique sale.

A taste for “French-style” collecting, with a sales total of nearly €3,400,000 for 700 lots, three days of exhibitions, and two days of consecutive sales at Drouot that attracted numerous enthusiasts and collectors, mainly from France and Europe.
This extremely classic “French-style” collection built up over more than 25 years by Christine and Thierry de Chirée presented an impressive, coherent group of very high quality Old Master drawings and paintings, sculptures, furniture and objets d’art, which came from their residences in the Couvent de la Visitation in central Avignon. The sale raised a total of €3,354,000, including €1,783,000 for the furniture, and €1,570,000 for the Old Master paintings and drawings. The series of works by Constantin d’Aix, the star artist of the collection, proved highly popular and totalled €232,000.
Also noteworthy was a pre-emption by the Musée du Louvre for the “Portrait d’homme prisant du tabac et esquisses de mains” by Nicolas de Largillière (Paris 1656-1746), knocked down for €29,000.

The price of the legend: nearly €3 million When it closed in 2006 for major refurbishments overseen by interior designer and architect Jacques Garcia, the Mamounia Hotel dispersed all the furniture and objects that furnished its interior. This large-scale, highly symbolic sale mobilised the Neuilly and Lyon teams for several weeks.
The mainly Art Deco, Hispano-Moresque and French Classical furniture inspired undeniable enthusiasm during the four-day sale, which took place at the Palais des Congrès in Marrakech. Over 700 furniture lovers and collectors attended, and numerous telephone lines enabled bidders from all over the world to make remote bids. The bidding soared sky-high with most of the lots, doubling and tripling estimates and sometimes multiplying them by ten. Nearly 5,000 lots were sold for a final total of €3 million, largely exceeding the expected estimate of €1.5 million. Nostalgic and regular guests thus paid tribute to the legendary luxury hotel, and every item found takers, from ashtrays through to armchairs by Leleu.
The highest bid went to a spectacular pair of Atlas busts decorated with shells, which stood on either side of the entrance to the hotel’s spa. Estimated at between €800 and €1,200, they were carried off in the saleroom for €40, 000 by regular customers of the Mamounia. They also acquired a large oriental desk for €22,300 after an estimate of €500/700.

A collection unique of its kind, exhibited to thousands for the first and last time in the celebrated Gare des Brotteaux in Lyon (a listed building) and then at Drouot Richelieu. More than 300 collector’s objects, paintings, documents and photographs from the First Crossing of the Sahara, the “Croisière Noire” and the “Croisière Jaune” were dispersed. They all passed through the hands of André Citroën, Georges-Marie Haardt and Alexandre Iacovleff and were subsequently owned by Louis Audouin-Dubreuil and his daughter Ariane. Crucial archives on these missions from the geographic, historical and ethnographical point of view were sold, to the delight of enthusiasts and institutions alike.
Drouot-Richelieu. World records were obtained for the drawings of Alexandre Iacovleff, with €235,986.20 including tax for Agona, the niece of chief EkiBondo (Bondo). Numerous mementoes from the “Croisières” and objects once belonging to Louis Audouin-Dubreuil were successfully dispersed, such as a camp bed-trunk by Louis Vuitton sold for €7,650 including tax, and a fine set of four suitcases, again by Vuitton, which shot up to €19,750 including tax. Some splendid bids also went to a large lot of 110 coloured glass plates from the “Croisière Jaune” (M.O. Williams), sold for €9,200 including tax, and a set of 50 period silver halide prints from the” Croisière Noire”, which came from a photo report by Colomb-Béchar in Tananarive, which fetched €6,600€ including tax . A fine illustrated poster by Vincent Desmeures for the “Croisière Noire” (second Citroën Mission – a film directed by Léon Poirier) went for €15,300 including tax , together with another illustrated by Georges Lepape entitled “Gaumont”, which advertised, in the top cinemas, the great documentary film on the “Raid Citroën – La Traversée du Sahara en Autochenilles Mission Haardt – Audouin-Dubreuil”, which fetched €11,500 including tax. In the Oriental Art section, a 17th century lidded pot from Iran was sold for €10,200 including tax.
During this sale, the state made three pre-emptions of historical photos, which have now gone to national museums.

This amazing residence near the Bastille in the heart of Paris was the setting for the 1,000-plus objects forming the collections of couturier Kenzo Takada, an impassioned art collector. The world of a man highly open to the world represented the cultures of five continents, including the sacred art of Asia, Chinese archaeology, Japanese art and objects from America, Africa and Oceania. Some 1,100 lots were presented in a catalogue providing a record of this world, including Japanese lacquers, Native American dolls, Chinese statuettes, furniture, tableware, photographs, contemporary painting and ethnic art.  The highest bid went to an 8th century pre-Angkorian gold statuette of a female deity of wisdom, which fetched €108,500 including tax, while a Buddha from the ancient kingdom of Pagan garnered €64,000 including tax. Chinese funerary figurines inspired some fine bids, with one achieving €69,000 including tax, and a Japanese bust €23,400 including tax. Some native American kachina dolls were sold for around €10,000 including tax (one of which had belonged to the former André Breton collection), an Indian war headdress for €14,000 and a kimono for €9,000 including tax.

A total of €21.8 million
Discovered by chance in an insurance assessment inventory, this exceptional collection of 10 paintings from the collection of Andre Lefèvre, a major collector of modern art of the first half of the 20th century, was the focus of a historic sale that garnered €21.8 million. Leading artists were represented, including Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger and Henri Lauens: works expressing a taste and mind much taken with Cubism. Several spectacular results were obtained: €11.6 million for “Blue Star”, a key work by Joan Miró, which beat all the records posted by the artist’s paintings at public auction; €6.2 million for a “Bird” by the same artist; €2.2 million for Juan Gris’ “The Guitar Player” and €607,200 for a gouache and glued paper by Henri Laurens (world record). The sale of these works was one of the sensatiosn of the year in the art market.A total of €21.8 million
Discovered by chance in an insurance assessment inventory, this exceptional collection of 10 paintings from the collection of Andre Lefèvre, a major collector of modern art of the first half of the 20th century, was the focus of a historic sale that garnered €21.8 million. Leading artists were represented, including Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger and Henri Lauens: works expressing a taste and mind much taken with Cubism. Several spectacular results were obtained: €11.6 million for “Blue Star”, a key work by Joan Miró, which beat all the records posted by the artist’s paintings at public auction; €6.2 million for a “Bird” by the same artist; €2.2 million for Juan Gris’ “The Guitar Player” and €607,200 for a gouache and glued paper by Henri Laurens (world record). The sale of these works was one of the sensatiosn of the year in the art market.A total of €21.8 million
Discovered by chance in an insurance assessment inventory, this exceptional collection of 10 paintings from the collection of Andre Lefèvre, a major collector of modern art of the first half of the 20th century, was the focus of a historic sale that garnered €21.8 million. Leading artists were represented, including Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger and Henri Lauens: works expressing a taste and mind much taken with Cubism. Several spectacular results were obtained: €11.6 million for “Blue Star”, a key work by Joan Miró, which beat all the records posted by the artist’s paintings at public auction; €6.2 million for a “Bird” by the same artist; €2.2 million for Juan Gris’ “The Guitar Player” and €607,200 for a gouache and glued paper by Henri Laurens (world record). The sale of these works was one of the sensatiosn of the year in the art market.