Auction of art works once belonging to Yves Saint Laurent will be held in November. The main part of the late designer’s collection was sold earlier this year. After the auction of the main pieces in February, the second auction would present objects of a more understated charm. Among the items on sale is a large Ming Dynasty basin.
The first auction of Yves Saint Laurent art was hit by a dispute over two bronze sculptures looted from China in the 19th century. China said the two Qing dynasty bronzes, seized from Beijing in 1860 during the Opium Wars, should be handed back because they had been taken illegally. Berge rejected the claim but said he would give them back if China guaranteed human rights and allowed the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama to return home.
The second auction will be held from November 17-19, and will include almost 1,200 works housed in Chateau Gabriel, a 19th-century Normandy country house bought by the couple in the 1980s, as well as their two Paris residences. The proceeds from this auction will be donated to AIDS research.
Yves Saint Laurent collection compiles of modern art, old master pictures and drawings by Picasso, Fernand Leger and Miro. The sale in Paris will include furniture and various decoration pieces that decorated the rooms of Saint Laurent’s château. Berge and Saint Laurent built up one of the world’s biggest and most important private art collections over some five decades. But Berge decided to sell it all after Saint Laurent died last year.