The proceedings took place under chandeliers and the glass roof of the palace off the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. About 1,500 elegant chairs were set up for buyers who had reserved them long in advance. Bianca Jagger, ex-wife of the rock star, and an assortment of European business and political figures were there. Several hundred people who could not find seats stood off to the side.
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Auction of Yves Saint-Laurent art fetches record-breaking $261 million
Most of the fashion icon's collection is snapped up, including a Matisse for $40.1 million. It was seen as a test of whether the wealthy will shrink from prodigious purchases amid economic crisis.
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Before the arrival of the limousine crowd, Parisians endured long lines in a cold drizzle Monday morning for a public exhibit of the works.
Michele Robin, a retiree, waited two hours to glimpse the epic convergence of art and commerce. She said she was impressed by the Art Deco furniture and a Francisco Goya painting to be donated to the Louvre. But she expressed some disdain for the commercial aspects.
"These people are like today's politicians: They are completely out of touch with reality," Robin said. She described the buyers as "people who have more money than they need."
Berge, the fashion designer's partner in business and personal life, predicted recently that the sale would reaffirm the value of art as an investment refuge. But Berge, 78, said that they had "never bought for that reason."
"We were absolutely crazy about art in general, so we bought it. And without bargaining over any prices."
Berge plans to donate most of the profits to HIV/AIDS research. He has told journalists that a sale will best honor the compulsive energy of Saint Laurent, who filled his sumptuous apartment on the Left Bank with eclectic treasures. Berge quoted the writer Edmond de Goncourt's sentiment that he did not want art ending up in "the cold tomb of a museum."
The previous auction record for a private collection had been set in New York in 1997 when artworks belonging to collectors Victor and Sally Ganz fetched more than $207 million.
The big-ticket items snapped up Monday included a Piet Mondrian painting, "Composition With Blue, Red, Yellow and Black," that went for $24 million, and a rare sculpture by the Romanian Constantin Brancusi, a work titled "Madame L.R." dating to between 1914 and 1917, sold for a record $36 million.
As with the buyer of the Matisse "Couscous," the identities of the other new owners remained unknown.
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rotella@latimes.com
