One of the world's great private art collections, amassed over half a century by fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge, goes on view this weekend before it is sold.
After Saint Laurent's death last June aged 71, Mr Berge opted to part with the 732 treasures that graced the couple's homes. The auction between Tuesday and Wednesday, is expected to fetch up to €300 million.
Including works by Picasso, Mondrian and Matisse as well as old masters, Art Deco pieces and antique bronzes, the collection goes on display as from tomorrow at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Already coined "the sale of the century", proceeds are to go to a Berge/Saint Laurent Foundation honouring the designer's work and to a fund for scientific research and the fight against AIDS.
"I hope that everything that we have loved with so much passion finds a home with other collectors," said 78-year-old Mr Berge, a business tycoon, patron of the arts and longtime commited leftwinger.
From a Cubist-period Picasso to a Brancusi sculpture never seen in public and a rare Eileen Gray designer chair, the couple decorated their homes in a crossover of styles that came to epitomise the very top in Parisian taste. Christie's, which is organising the three-day sale with Mr Berge's own auction house, sees the event as "a milestone in the history of great auctions", comparable to a 1987 sale of the Duchess of Windsor's jewels, or the Thurn und Taxis auctions of 1992 and 1993.
Factbox: Star piece on sale
• A 1914-15 Cubist-era Picasso, Instruments de musique sur un gueridon previously owned by one of the artist's friends, US sculptor Mary Callery. Estimated at €25 to €30 million.
• A 117-centimetre wooden sculpture by Constantin Brancusi from 1914-17 titled Portrait of Madame L.R. that was first owned by Fernand Leger, who exchanged it against one of his own paintings. Estimated at €15-20 million.
• A 1911 still-life by Henri Matisse, Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose. Estimated at €12-18 million.
• A large 1921 oil by Fernand Leger, one of five by the abstract artist, estimated at €10-15 million.
• Two ancient Chinese bronze animal heads, one a rabbit, the other a rat, reportedly stolen from the Old Summer Palace during the second Opium War in 1860. Estimated at €10 million.
• Two abstracts by Piet Mondrian from 1918 and 1922, the former with the original artist's frame, the latter once owned by Hollywood director Otto Preminger. Both estimated at €7 to €10 million.
• A pair of palmwood leaopard-skinned benches designed by Hungarian Gustave Miklos for art collector and couturier Jacques Doucet. Estimated at €2 to €3 million.
• An "enfilade" chest from 1915-1917 and a unique Dragons armchair by Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray, both once owned by high society fashion queen Suzanne Talbot. Estimated at €3 to €5 million and €2 to €3 million.