PARIS.- Christie's offered at auction Les Stern: une famille de collectionneurs the 11th and 12th of December, presented in two sessions: the first yesterday with nearly 115 lots, and the second online today featuring 240 lots. Initially estimated between €3 and €4.5 million, the sale achieved nearly five times its estimate. It was complemented by an online sale, bringing the total to €14,496,101. Assembled over more than a century by three generations of enlightened bankers and passionate aesthetes, the strength of the collection lay in its remarkable diversity. Spanning a wide range of specialties—from Old Master paintings and drawings to sculpture, from Asian art to 18th-century works of art, and from 18th-century silver to 20th-century decorative arts—all of which achieved outstanding results. Preserved within the family for decades, many works appeared on the market for the first time and generated exceptional interest among collectors, with more than 550 active bidders across the sales.
It is a great satisfaction to see the exceptional results achieved by numerous pieces across all the specialties represented in the collection. These results reflect collectors' continued interest in prestigious provenances, notably this one embodying refined le Grand goût Stern. They also confirm Paris's position as a major center for collection sales. We express our gratitude to the Stern family for the trust they have placed in us, comments Etienne de Couville, Auctioneer, Decorative Arts Specialist and Head of the sale.
Among the highlights, the Old Master paintings assembled by Edgard and Marguerite Stern attracted significant interest, leading to competitive bidding. The top lot of the sale, an impressive pair of painted water fountains by Hubert Robert, reached €3,720,000, ten times its low estimate. In addition, a pair of canvases depicting putti by Jean-Honoré Fragonard achieved €495,300, doubling its estimate. A still life by Maria van Oosterwyck, a celebrated female artist whose works entered the collections of Louis XIV, the Emperor in Vienna, and the Royal Collection in London during her lifetime, sold for €406,400, four times its estimate.
The sculpture section also generated exceptional enthusiasm among collectors, notably for a celebrated paired composition of abductions, which soared to €2,866,000 —more than ten times their initial estimate. The first featured a rare 17th-century Florentine cast after the marble by Giambologna, while the second, cast in the early 18th century, reprises the marble Pluto and Proserpina by François Girardon, sculptor to Louis XIV, originally placed at the heart of the Colonnade Grove at Versailles. Another remarkable surprise was a 17th-century bronze after a model attributed to Francesco Fanelli, depicting Mercury and Cupid, which sold for €1,768,000 against an estimate of €80,000–120,000.
Results for enamels and glassware collected by Alice Stern confirm her discerning and well-informed taste, as demonstrated by an Émile Gallé vase that achieved €107,950 (estimate €3,000–5,000), as well as a group of three vases (1913 and 1920) by Jean Dunand, which sold for €69,850, ten times their estimate. Also noteworthy was the superb enamel plaque representing the Allegory of Ceramics by Théophile Soyer, pre-empted by the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris for €12,700.
Finally, the silver, originating from major historic sales of the 1970s and 1980s, including the David-Weill collection, totaled €1,077,214, with most lots far exceeding their estimates. One of the leading lots in this section was a pot à oille by Robert-Joseph Auguste (1723–1805), eminent silversmith to Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, which was acquired for €120,650.
