Results of the Lanvin Art Sale

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 2nd 2008 at 7:02PM

The Christie's Paris sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings that belonged to French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin came in far below estimate on Monday. The Washington Post reports that the sale raised euro7.67 million ($9.67 million) at the sale which included works by Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Christie's had originally valued the collection at euro20 million ($25.2 million). The top seller was Renoir's "Woman with a Parasol Sitting in the Garden," which went for euro1.16 million ($1.46 million) and has a top estimate of euro1.8 million ($2.27 million). A total of 23 of the 31 lots were sold. Another painting by Renoir, "The Tapestry in the Park (Presumed Portrait of Camille Monet)" went unsold as did works by Edgar Degas, Eugene Boudin and Camille Pissarro.Lanvin, died in 1946 at the age of 79, but was once of France's most influential designers of the 1920s and '30s and created the classic fragrance "Arpege." The paintings hung in her Paris apartment and a portion of the proceeds from the sale will go toward two arts charities run by the Polignac dynasty, the aristocratic family which Lanvin's daughter Marie-Blanche married into.

The Lanvin fashion label remains one of France's oldest fashion houses under the creative direction of Israeli-American designer Alber Elbaz. Recently Stella McCartney hired Frederick Lukoff, the business development director of Lanvin, to lead the British fashion brand, part of the Gucci Group. Lanvin has recently been it talks with potential investors to raise funds to expand.

Tags: art, auction, christies, lanvin, renoir