NEW YORK, NY.- Following the record-setting sale of the Stafford’s exquisite Brancusi bronze La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard), which sold for $71 million in May 2018, Christie’s announced a single-owner sale from the same estate with A Love Affair with France: The Elizabeth Stafford Collection. This dedicated collection sale of approximately 290 lots will offer superb French Furniture, Old Master paintings and drawings, decorative arts, and Sèvres porcelain on November 1 in New York. Additionally, several highlights from the collection will be offered across the fall sales of Old Masters, European Art and the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening, Day and Works on Paper sales featuring the artists Corot, Claude Lorrain, Monet, Pissarro and Sisley, among others.

Highlights from the collection will tour to Christie’s Paris from September 6-10, during the Biennale in Paris, and to Hong Kong from September 28-October 3. Highlights will also be on view in New York alongside the previews for Asia Week in September and the Collector sales in October.

Will Strafford, Senior International Specialist, European Furniture & Decorative Arts, comments: “Mrs. Stafford’s achievement of re-creating an authentic mid-18th century environment in her Avenue Foch apartment in Paris which she decorated with the help of the celebrated Maison Jansen, and later of Fifth Avenue in New York in the former apartment of Anita O’Keeffe Young, reflected her deep connoisseurship and sophistication, with the collection comprising a virtual roll call of the greatest French furniture makers of the day. Mrs. Stafford famously shared her passion and knowledge as a benefactor to many institutions, and graciously opened her home to cultural groups touring Paris, always true to her New Orleans roots of “Southern hospitality.”

Jessica Fertig, Head of Evening Sale, Impressionist & Modern Art, remarks: “We are delighted to offer the continuation of the Elizabeth Stafford collection in this season’s Impressionist and Modern sales after achieving the world auction record for the Stafford’s Brancusi in May. The paintings offered this season maintain the same hallmark traits of excellent provenance, quality and freshness to the market. Leading the selection is Monet’s Effet de neige à Giverny, a beautifully atmospheric work that entered the Stafford family collection in 1949. It has been widely-exhibited and most recently shown as the centerpiece of the Monet exhibition at The National Gallery, London.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Stafford (1928-2018), known as Mimi, was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. While working for the State Department in Germany, she met her husband in France and they lived in Paris from 1961-76, before settling in New York. While living in Paris, she transformed their apartment into an authentic 18th Century French home, which was frequently opened for international museums and cultural groups. The couple generously lent their collection to the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1966 with an exhibition called Odyssey of an Art Collector, to raise funds after hurricane devastation. Mimi was a Fellow at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and a benefactor to the Frick Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Morgan Library, and the Metropolitan Opera and her collection was lent extensively around the world.

HIGHLIGHTS ACROSS VARIOUS SALES

OLD MASTERS, OCTOBER 30
Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) Landscape with Apollo guarding the herds of Admetus and Mercury stealing them oil on canvas Estimate $600,000 - $800,000

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE, NOVEMBER
Claude Monet (1840-1926) Effet de neige à Giverny oil on canvas Estimate: $6,000,000-8,000,000

EUROPEAN ART, OCTOBER 31
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) Landscape with Cows oil on canvas Estimate: $150,000-250,000

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE, NOVEMBER
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) Neige, soleil couchant, Eragny Oil on canvas Estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000

OLD MASTERS, OCTOBER 30
Étienne Aubry (1745-1781) ‘La Turque’, presumed portrait of Mademoiselle Duthé Oil on canvas Estimate: $300,000-500,000

OLD MASTERS, OCTOBER 30
Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) Roses, tulips, peonies, marigolds, a carnation, an iris and other flowers in an earthenware vase with a garden tiger moth on a stone ledge oil on canvas Estimate: $400,000-600,000