February 23, 2009 - At tonight’s inaugural session of the sale of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, offered by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, one of the most significant collections of Impressionist and Modern art in private hands today fell under the hammer under the glass domed roof of the Grand Palais. In the presence of over 1200 collectors from all over the world, 59 works of Impressionist and Modern Art sold for a total of €206 million / £183 million / $266 million, a world record for a private collection at auction and a record for the most valuable auction in Europe. The top lot of the evening was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction, and 8 works of art sold for over €5 million. 25 works of art sold for over €1 million (24 lots for over £1 million / 25 lots over $1 million). Buyer activity at the auction (by lot / by origin) was 70% Europe and 30% Americas and 7 world records were set for artists at auction, including Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian, De Chirico, Duchamp, Klee and Ensor.

Thomas Seydoux, International Head of Impressionist and Modern Art said: “This record sale, which achieved the highest total for any auction in Europe, and the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction in the world, was a tribute to two great men: Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. Collectors, gathered in the largest saleroom that Christie’s has ever seated, responded to the opportunity of a lifetime to buy into a Collection carefully assembled over almost five decades. There was significant bidding on the telephone from a deep pool of international buyers and many rare and exceptional works, each with impeccable provenance and condition, set world record prices for artists at auction. This historical sale demonstrated the timeless appeal of Impressionist and Modern art, this long-established and highly valued category.”

Leading highlights of the sale included:

• The sumptuous still life, Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, sold for €35.9 million / £31.5 million / $46.4 million (estimate: €12,000,000-18,000,000), setting a world record for the artist at auction. The expressive Le Danseur, 1937-38, painted in Matisse’s seventieth year and one of a series of experimental collages, and the first time that he was carving directly into colour, sold for €6.7 million / £6 million / $8.7 million (estimate: €4,000,000-6,000,000) and Nu au bord de la mer, 1909 sold for €8.2 million / £7.3 million / $10.6 million (estimate: €4,000,000-6,000,000)

• Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.), a magnificent example of Constantin Brancusi’s earliest and enigmatic sculptures in wood sold for €29.1 million / £25.9 million / $37.7 million (estimate: €15,000,000 – 20,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction. Bought by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in the 1970s, the first owner of this sculpture was the painter Fernand Léger who directly received it in exchange for a painting sometime after 1918, the year he and Brancusi met.

• Three abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian, which each belong to key stages in the artist’s work, and express degrees of tension between line, form and colour and are moving testimonies to the artist’s pursuit for purity and equilibrium were all sold above their high estimates. Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir, 1922 sold for € 21.5 million / £19.1 million / $27.9 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction; Composition avec grille 2, 1918 sold for €14.4 million / £12.8 million / $18.6 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), and Composition I, 1920, sold for €7 million / £6.2 million / $9 million (estimate: €5,000,000-7,000,000).

• Fernand Léger’s great mechanical paintings of 1918 and 1919, painted during one of his most brilliant periods drew significant attention: Composition, dans l’usine, 1918 sold for € 5.5 million / £4,942,170 million / $7,185,027 million (estimate: €6,000,000 – 8,000,000). La tasse de thé, 1921, sold for € 11.4 million / £10.2 million / $14.8 million (estimate: €10,000,000 – 15,000,000).

Other works such as the elegant Dancers and Sphere by Alexander Calder sold for € 1.5 million / £ 1.4 million / $2 million (estimate: €1,000,000 – 2,000,000). The ready-made masterpiece “La Belle Haleine – Eau de Voilette” by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance by Man Ray in 1921, witnessed fierce bidding in the room and realized € 8.9 million / £7.9 million / $11.5 million, nearly 9 times its estimate of €1,000,000 – 1,500,000, a world auction record for the artist.

Elsewhere in the sale, James Ensor’s monumental Le désespoir de Pierrot, the most important work of art by the artist to be presented at auction in the last 25 years, and since the very same composition was last seen at auction in the early 1980s, sold for € 4.9 million / £4.4 million / $6.4 million (estimate €2,000,000 – 3,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.