Earlier this week, at Sotheby’s Paris, the first of five sales of art and furniture collected by Hubert Guerrand-Hermès, the great-great-grandson of the founder of renowned luxury brand Hermés, tripled its pre-sale estimate during a white glove evening sale, according to the auction house.
The “white glove” sale, a term applied to auctions in which every lot was purchased, brought in more than €22.9 million (roughly $25 million) against an estimate of €6.1 million – €8.9 million.
Among the top lots of the December 13 sale was a carved and regilded Louis XVI chair that is thought to have been executed for Marie-Antoinette’s personal rooms at the Château de Versailles, which broke the record for the sale of a single piece of 18th century furniture after selling for €2,589,000, and crisp work by the painter Pierre Soulages, Peinture (1970), that sold for just over €3 million.
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Also notable were the two bronze monkey sculptures by François-Xavier Lalanne that once sat on either side of the 18th century toilet in Guerrand-Hermès’s home in the modestly sized, yet opulent Parisian mansion Hôtel de Lannion, which he purchased in 1997 and subsequently had restored with the help of the architect and designer François-Joseph Graf.
Two in-person sales followed Wednesday’s white glove affair, the Collection Hubert Guerrand-Hermès, L’hôtel de Lannion, on December 14 and Collection Hubert Guerrand-Hermès, Autour de la duchesse de Berry on December 15. Two online sales, ending on December 19, will wrap up the sales.
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