YVES St Laurent will always be remembered as the international icon who pioneered designer menswear in the 1960s.He was synonymous with the glamour of the Paris catwalk and the elegance of haute couture, so his death in June last year was a great loss to fashion.
Through the years, St Laurent and his long-time business- and life-partner Pierre Bergé amassed a collection of modern art, art deco, European furniture, old masters, antiquities and 19th century paintings.
Which he bequeathed to the Pierre Bergé-Yves St Laurent Foundation. Bergé has now decided to auction off a selection of those pieces with the proceeds going to scientific and AIDS research.
This is being touted as one of the most important collections to enter the art market due to its provenance that reflects 50 years of the two men’s shared dedication and passion.
These rare and unique pieces are a spectacular dialogue between the owners and settings since many were purchased to either fit a predetermined backdrop, or a new display area was created to showcase them. Bergé pays tribute to the Viscount and Viscountess of Noailles who “taught Yves and I how to mix styles, eras and continents”.'
As St Laurent and Bergé found success early, they moved into their vast rue Babylon apartment in 1972 and began redecorating, filling up every available inch with sumptuous pieces of the finest quality.Their modern art ranks among the finest.
Auction house Christie’s was shocked to discover the duo owned such incredible works as the painting Musical Instruments by Picasso worth a staggering RM150mil to RM200mil, Brancusi’s wood sculpture Madame L.R estimated between RM74mil and RM100mil, Henri Matisse’s Blue and Pink Carpet (RM75mil-RM100mil), Ferdnand Léger’s La Tasse de Thé (RM35mil-RM50mil) and Piet Mondrian’s Composition in Blue, Red, Yellow and Black (RM40mil-RM60mil).
Even more earth-shattering, one of the art world’s secrets was revealed: St Laurent and Bergé owned two of the 12 world-famous bronze animal heads of the Yuanmingyuan Chinese horoscope!These were part of a huge water clock in the Calm Sea Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in Beijing.
Constructed between 1756 and 1759 under the supervision of the renowned Jesuit priest Giuseppe Castiglione, the animals were uniquely Western in style. Each animal spouted water to mark the various hours of the day with the exception of midday when the elaborate mechanism triggered all 12 animals to spew water simultaneously.
In 1860, the British and French troops attacked Yuanmingyuan (“Garden of Gardens” or “Garden of Perfect Brightness”). It took 3,500 soldiers three days to burn the complex of palaces as the British and French soldiers pillaged the treasures said to be more precious than those in the Forbidden City as this was the personal home of Emperor Xianfeng.
The 350ha area was five times the size of the Forbidden City and eight times larger than The Vatican. The 12 animal heads were hacked off and vanished. To this day, only seven have been discovered, including the two owned by St Laurent and Bergé.Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho paid a record US$8.84mil (RM31mil) for the horse head in 2007 and donated it to China’s Poly Museum which also has the boar, monkey, tiger and ox. Until now, the rat and rabbit were known to be “in a European collection”; the art world was stunned to learn it was St Laurent and Bergé who had them all these years!
However, Bergé is not returning them to China unless he gets RM50mil each.At the end of the 1980s, the rue Babylon apartment was filled to the rafters, and St Laurent and Bergé moved to another apartment, in rue Bonaparte, a huge house that had witnessed the birth of artist Edouard Manet and the death of Marshal Lyautey. This apartment, decorated by François-Joseph Graf, is best described as “modern ancient” as it is filled with artefacts both new and old.
Manet, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Degas, Ingres and Braque decorate the walls that are harmonised with 18th century masterpieces by Fran Hals, Pieter de Hooch and Martin de Vos. On the first floor and against pale grey walls are the celebrated rabbit and rat head. These two pieces once belonged to José Maria Sert, one of the 20th century’s most ardent art lovers.
Recalls Philippe Garnier, Christie’s head of 20th Century Decorative Art & Design: “It was in November 1972, at the start of my career, that I had the good fortune to attend the Paris sale of the art deco furniture of Jacques Doucet, a sale that has since become legendary. I noticed a tall, elegant young man with thick framed glasses, deep in concentration before the treasures displayed. He was Yves Saint Laurent and was about to become owner of wonderful pieces from this collection.
“What an extraordinary privilege, after 36 years, to be now involved in the dispersal of his collection!”desiring to re-do their home will go gaga. Says Adrien Meyer, head of Furniture and Works of Art at Christie’s: “A superb set of 18th century rococo Italian chairs with 20th century art deco in marble and bronze, an unexpected but successful coupling! The pair knew how to juggle!”
The silver and gold collection is unsurpassed, said to be even more glamorous than the Wernher sale in 2000 which fetched US$30.1mil (RM105mil). “Table after table is crammed with 16th, 17th and 18th century silver married to nautilus shells and ostrich eggs as well as silver animals. The more avant garde can opt for rare table fountains and trick drinking glasses,” says Anthony Phillips of the Silver Department.The sale will be conducted by Christie’s and Pierre Bergé & Associates Auction House at Grand Palais, Paris and will tour New York, London and Brussels before the auction from Feb 23 to 25.