What will the spaces and architectural details be like for Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré ,83 was already revealed earlier this year. When the building will open to the public on October 12th, visitors will be greeted in the grand atrium by a playful and elegant “mobile” chandelier commissioned by leading artist and designer Hubert Le Gall, which will interpret an ever-changing work of light throughout the space. Meanwhile, a new bar and restaurant will be led by emerging culinary talent Gaetan Thiber, and an exclusive wine cellar, The Sotheby's Cave, will allow the tasting and purchase of some of the rarest and most sought-after wines available on today's market.
The Opening Program
The inaugural sales and exhibition program will bring together an extraordinary array of masterpieces and collections, some to be offered at auction, some for private sale, and some exclusively on view. The works on display will be worth over €300 million, the highest total value ever assembled under the roof of an auction house in Paris.
“Jubilation”: six masterpieces from an exceptional private collection – lost in memory and
invisible for over 30 years. The most important collection offered in Paris this season, the group is led by one of the most valuable works by Dubuffet ever to come to market in France: – a portrait of the artist’s great friend and kindred spirit, the poet Francis Ponge.
Le Jardin de Pissarro by Paul Gauguin (1881): a rediscovered early masterpiece and one of Gauguin's most sought-after works to appear on the French market in over 25 years and featuring the artist's first self-portraits on the reverse. Two recently returned paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, held in French national collections for decades and now appearing on the market for the first time in over 80 years.
A big sale of Surrealism to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the movement, highlighting great women artists including Leonor Fini, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, Jane Graverol and Juanita Guccione. The sale will also include three iconic gouaches by René Magritte, André Masson and Diego Rivera for the cover of the legendary Surrealist magazine Minotaure from the collection of the magazine's founder, Albert Skira; and Apollo by Francis Picabia, one of a group of slides commissioned for Leonce Rosenberg's apartment where it hung next to another work, Pavonia, the finest work by the artist ever sold at auction.
Excellence in French: an exhibition celebrating the best of French art and craftsmanship over the last millennium, showcasing exceptional works from each of the many categories in which Sotheby’s France operates: everything from French furniture and design, to silverware, wine, watches and – of course – Fine Art. Continuing the theme of celebrating France’s greatest creative achievements, highlights will also be on display from Sotheby’s Important Design auction on November 14, including spectacular pieces by François-Xavier Lalanne and Alberto Giacometti.
The Pierre Bergé Library: The Last Chapter: A selection of rare books from the legendary collection of the patron, businessman, music lover, writer and art connoisseur, Pierre Bergé. Among the treasures offered are two titles annotated by Stendhal; a rare first edition of Montesquieu's Personal Letters and Walt Whitman's equally rare Leaves of Grass; an important manuscript of Gide's Cahiers d'André Walter and the copy of Salammbô given by Flaubert to Victor Hugo.
Exceptional exhibitions and auctions at 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
The first auction ever dedicated entirely to the work of Joseph Beuys, who pushed the boundaries of art in ways that were unprecedented. This sale will feature approximately 30 works from the personal collection of Jörg Schellmann, Beuys's close friend and collaborator. In addition, a comprehensive multimedia exhibition of the artist's work has never before been mounted in Paris. The sale of this collection therefore represents the most important offering ever made of Joseph Beuys's work.
“LDN-PAR”, an assembly of masterpieces by important international figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pablo Picasso and many more: all available for private sale.
The sale will also feature a little-known product, a gouache by René Magritte. (ON THE COVER “René Magritte, Gouache on paper, L'Incendie, 37,1×46,2 cm., 1947”). Estimated at between 3 and 5 million euros, the painting has not been seen on the market for three decades and was once owned by legendary gallery owner Alexandre Iolas and then by avant-garde collector Elizabeth Arden.
