PARIS.- The Design sale achieved a total of € 8,695,375/£ 7,319,339/$ 9,763,998 selling 91% by value and 83% by lot. Leading the sale was the Crocodile armchair by Claude Lalanne, an iconic piece crystallizing her lyrical and poetic universe, sold for €1,460,000. Underlining further the strong interest in the work by the Lalanne couple was the strong price achieved for a very rare black marble Rhinocéros which achieved €788,000, highest price ever set at public auction for this design.

Furthermore, two new world auction records were achieved for the artists Nora Auric and Ristue Mishima.

Five exceptional collections were presented in this sale, which were led by an Emile-Jacques Rhulmann ensemble achieving €618,750, doubling its presale estimate – the highlight of this section was the Collectionneur table sold for €225,000 against an estimate of €60,000.

This was followed by the collection of objects by the French interior designer Jean Quinet totalling €581,250 for 55 lots, attracting a high attention by international bidders.

The prestigious selection of 11 lots from Charlotte Aillaud’s collection totaled €237,625 and included the remarkable Cadre photo aux feuilles, which sold for €50,000, almost four times the presale estimate.

Flavien Gaillard, Director of the department and Agathe de Bazin, Head of sale: “With bidders from 21 countries, the achieved results show the relentless appetite from international collectors for exceptional pieces by the major names of 20th Century design. We were honored to present lots from remarkable collections with carefully selected pieces, often fresh to the market. Once again, works from François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne were very successful and led the auction”.

Other highlights included several works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, including a superb bench by the latter, which sold for €1,016,000. The 24 lots of ceramics by Jean Besnard totaled €164,375, more than doubling the presale estimate. Among them, a water jug achieved €47,500, almost ten times its presale estimate.

After the sales of the Marion Lambert, A Parisian Pied-à-Terre curated by Hubert de Givenchy, Stéphane Danant, Maison de Verre and Daniel Lebard collections as well as last June Design sale, this auction concludes an utterly exceptional year for Design at Christie’s Paris with more than €80M. Together with the numerous world auction records established in 2021, including the highest price achieved for a Claude Lalanne piece last September, this outstanding total shows the market’s strength across all segments.