Yves Saint Laurent's "Sale of the Century" Continues

The first Yves Saint Laurent auction broke records on the sale of the collection of art the French fashion icon shared with his longtime partner Pierre Bergé, and the “sale of the century” continued this week as 1,185 lots went up for auction at Christie’s France. The four-day sale of the late designer’s assets—including furniture, giant chandeliers, and even his S-class Mercedes-Benz—is estimated to raise up to nearly $5.8 million. Most of the lots come from Saint Laurent and Bergé’s three-floor Chateau Gabriel on the Normandy coast that the couple purchased in the 1980's and redecorated, evoking the works of Marcel Proust and Luchino Visconti. “This auction is totally unlike the first, which was the sale of an art collection,” said François de Ricqlès, the deputy president of Christie’s France. “There are no masterpieces this time, we’re not expecting to break market records.” Saint Laurent’s art collection sold in February for a record-breaking total of over $509.7 million. Bergé, who chose to sell the collection amassed over their fifty years together before Saint Laurent’s 2008 death due to brain cancer, said he would give all proceeds of this November auction to fight AIDS, as well as a portion of the money raised in February.