PARIS.- Works from the collection of world-renowned interior designer Jacques Garcia
bring €8 million / $8.7 million in an auction by
Sotheby’s to benefit the future of
Château du Champ-de-Bataille.
Built in the 17th century, the Château du Champ de Bataille is today one of the most beautiful and inventive estates in France. In 1992, world-renowned interior designer and collector Jacques Garcia acquired the residence and set about on the project of a lifetime renovating the residence in the opulent image of the Grand Siècle. The proceeds of this afternoon’s auction – which totalled €8,038,211 / $8,721,459 – will go towards guaranteeing the future and legacy of this historic estate and its gardens.
The auction saw buying from French museums, including Versailles, with a number of ‘Preemptions’* for pieces with royal and noble provenance, including: a Régence giltwood console table designed for Leopold I, Duke of Lorraine (Lot 3); a Louis XV commode delivered to Queen Marie Leczinska at Compiègne (Lot 25) and a Louis XVI mahogany royal writing tray from the Queen Marie-Antoinette's private Garde-Meuble (Lot 30). The Louis XVI painted fire screen, delivered for Queen Marie-Antoinette's private apartments at Versailles (Lot 60) was also acquired by an institution. At €254,000, this marks a world record for any gilt-wood fire screen.
The top lots of the sale were:
·An Important Sèvres porcelain 'Beau bleu' armorial and ornithological part dinner service (Lot 33), sold for €889,000 - an auction record for an 18th Century Sèvres Dinner Service.
·A Louis XVI console table, by Adam Weisweiler (Lot 45), sold for €825,500 - a record for a console by the master cabinet-maker.
·An Important Pair of Monumental Sèvres Porcelain Gilt-Bronze-Mounted Purple and Gold-Ground Vases (Lot 41), sold for €825,500.
·A Louis XVI giltwood furniture set from Fontainebleau, stamped by George Jacob (Lot 65), sold for €825,500.
·A Sèvres porcelain fond bleu agate-ground vase and cover, 'vase chinois' or 'à pied de globe' (Lot 47), sold for €533,400 - a record for a single 18th century vase.
·A pair of Louis XVI gilt-bronze three-light cupid wall-lights (Lot 44), sold for €444,500.
Collections at Sotheby’s Paris
Taking place on 22 June, Une Collection à 360° will offer some 130 works from a distinguished European private collection – the culmination of decades of careful curation and astute acquisitions. The offering will bring together fine and decorative arts, design, furniture and more, in a sophisticated exploration of the art of collecting.
Among the highlights is an exquisite group of four Rembrandt Bugatti bronzes; avant-garde contemporary art with works by Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol, Olafur Eliasson and Victor Vasarely; a dive into the Surrealist world of Felix Labisse; a wide-ranging selection of furniture and clocks from the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI periods; as well as Art Deco pieces by sought-after designers including Jean Dunand and Emile Jacques Ruhlmann. The collection will be exhibited from 16 – 21 June.
The exhibition will be on view at the same time as the exceptional collection of pioneering African art expert and dealer Hélène Leloup – one of the most important offerings of African art to come to auction, led by a remarkable Fang Head from Gabon, alongside modern and contemporary artworks by Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. Collection Hélène Leloup, Le Journal d'une Pionnière, Vol. I will take place in Paris on 21 June, followed by Volume II in New York in 2024.
Earlier in the month, alongside the annual Art Contemporain Evening Auction on 5 June, Sotheby’s will offer the Collection Michel Lequesne. Michel Lequesne began collecting in the 1950s and amassed the best examples of post-war abstraction and tribal art, acquiring pieces directly through historic galleries such as the Galerie Daniel Cordier and the Galerie Pierre and from renowned African art dealers. His collection illustrates the perfect dialogue between post-war painting and the African and Oceanic aesthetic.
