PARIS.- Alain Delon, 60 Years of Passion sale was 98% sold on Thursday 22 June at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris. The top lot was La baie de Sainte-Adresse, 1906 by Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), which sold for €1,016,400. The painting had a pre-sale estimate of €600,000-800,000.

The 83-lot sale made a total of €8M, against a pre-sale estimate of €4M. In a packed room relayed to a second room where the sale was being broadcasted, buyers in the room or on the telephone competed for the great names collected with passion by Alain Delon.

Arnaud Cornette de Saint Cyr, President, Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris, said: "Alain Delon's collection, which was admired from Hong Kong to New York to Paris, was an unprecedented success, fetching €8 million, more than twice its low estimate. Alain Delon is a living legend of the cinema. His taste and eye have been acclaimed the world over. It was a great honour for Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr to present this sublime collection and it is not surprising that it attracted such passionate bidding at this exceptional sale."

For more than 60 years, Delon (born 1935) has been a discerning and passionate art collector. Delon’s celebrated acting career began in the late 1950s, but it was during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s that he dazzled in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Leopard (1963), La Piscine (1969), Le Samouraї (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Mr Klein (1976) and Notre Histoire (1984) for which he won the French equivalent of an Oscar, The César Award for Best Actor. Admired for his striking good looks, Delon is equally celebrated for his prowess as an actor and has worked with the leading directors of his day including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Pierre Melville, Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard. He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1991 and is the recipient of an honorary Golden Bear and an honorary Palme d’Or.

Highlights of the sale included:

• Cheval arabe attaché à un piquet (Arab Horse tied to a stake) by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) sold for €775,100, more than twice its low estimate.

• Three exceptional works by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916) were offered at auction: a bronze cast statuette of a Lionne couchée baillant showed how the artist was able to capture in bronze animals’ beauty with a sense of their vulnerability. Estimated €250,000-300,000, it sold for €533,800, Panthère grognant et feulant sold for €508,400 and Lion couché dévorant sold for €483,000.

• Painted in 1914-15, a Landscape by Albert Gleizes (1881-1953) illustrates the new Cubist tendencies embraced by Gleizes after the publication in 1912 of his work Du Cubisme, co-written with Jean Metzinger. It sold for €356,000.

• A small double-sided pen and bistre wash drawing by Domenico Beccafumi (circa 1486-1551) depicting Saint Anthony on the front and Kneeling Women on the reverse sold for €241,700, four times its low estimate.

• Two works by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) achieved amazing prices. A painting entitled Paysannes au repos was sold for €241,700 and La Laitière normande a charcoal drawing estimated at €100,000-150,000, sold for €216,300.

• Gênes, un bout de la ville et les Apennins, a delicate oil on canvas from 1834 by Camille Corot (1796-1875), sold for €229,000, twice its low estimate.