PARIS.- With a total of €5.5 million in two sessions, the sale of the private collection of Ginette and Alain Lesieutre largely exceeded its high estimate. This remarkable result acclaims a collection of art works chosen by the couple, carefully preserved by Ginette Lesieutre in their Paris apartment until her death last year.

To quote Cécile Verdier, Vice-President Sotheby's France and Worldwide Co-Head of the Design Department at Sotheby's, and Frédéric Chambre, Associated Vice Chairman Chief Executive of PIASA: "We are delighted to have been able to pay tribute together to the husband and wife dealers, who were central figures in the Paris market during the 1980s and 1990s. These international private collectors had an eye for the quality and modernity of the works in their personal collection."

The highest price of the sale went to a work truly embodying the image of this collection. Deux bêtes affrontées, a pair of polychrome gilt bronzes produced by Gustave Miklos in 1925, mix Byzantine inspiration with pure lines. At €847,500, this group of exceptional quality, which once belonged to Jacques Doucet – an impeccable, legendary provenance for works created during the 1910s and 1920s – largely exceeded its high estimate of €350,000 (lot 11, estimate: €250,000-350,000).

The core of the collection was dedicated to great sculptors of the 19th and 20th centuries, first and foremost Rembrandt Bugatti. The collection included eleven bronzes signed by the artist and cast by Hébrard, which all topped their high estimates. The most sought-after pieces were Two American Bisons, 1906, a model that rarely comes up at auction, which fetched €415,500 (lot 38, estimate: €150,000/200,000 €); Walking Leopard, one of the artist's best-known models created in around 1911, knocked down for €367,500 (lot 33, estimate: €200,000-300,000), and Drinking Camel, a model dating from around 1903, which went for €205,500 (lot 37, estimate: €120,000-180,000).

Another sculptor, Jules Dalou, largely represented in the first session, was contested by many bidders. His sculptures of intimate domestic scenes, cast by Hébrard, were executed during his exile in London. At €50,000, Baigneuse avant le bain achieved its high estimate (lot 69, estimate: €30,000-50,000), while at €35,000, Nymphe et Faune (Le Baiser) almost tripled its own (lot 61, estimate: €8,000-12,000).

Also noteworthy were François Pompon's Sleeping Rooster, a model created in 1918, here a 1932 copy: €81,250 (lot 104, estimate: €20,000-30,000), and Antoine-Louis Barye's Turkish Horse €43,750 (lot 142, estimate: €12,000-18,000). Paul Troubetzkoy's elegant Seated Woman also tripled its estimate, taken up to €62,500 in a bidding tussle between several private collectors (lot 194, estimate: €20,000-30,000).

The collection also contained a group of works on paper by Léonard Foujita rarely seen on the market. They date from 1917-1918, a few years after his arrival in Paris. The eight gouaches, illustrating the bridge between Eastern and Western art, doubled their high estimate at €705,000. The two works inspiring the fiercest competition were Vierge à l'Enfant, 1918, which went all the way up to €223,500 after an estimate of €35,000-45,000 (lot 19), and Femme au miroir, 1922, carried off for €100,000 (lot 14, estimate: €35,000-45,000).

Lastly, Emile Bernard aroused the most enthusiasm among the Nabis with Les Faneuses dans un pré, 1887. Painted at a time when the painter was friends with Vincent Van Gogh, this remarkably mature composition with its unprecedented combination of touch and colour garnered €289,500 (lot 53, estimate: €150,000-200,000).