Buyers, billionaires and buffs turned out by the thousands yesterday for a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse of Yves Saint Laurent's spectacular art collection before it goes on the block this week.

Shown to the public for the first time, and for only three days before being auctioned between tomorrow and Wednesday, the collection assembled by the 'prince of fashion' and his partner Pierre Berge saw art-lovers from France and abroad lining up even before dawn for a glimpse.

"What's four hours in a life," said Olivier Selles, at the back of a four-hour-long queue in wintry cold. "This show is unique, because of the quality and rarity of the works, and the sheer size of the exhibition."

Held inside the vast Grand Palais in Paris, where auctioneers Christie's built sets recreating Saint Laurent's Paris flat for a real-life take on the 733-item collection, some 5,000 visitors had filed in within a couple of hours of the opening.

Including works by Picasso, Mondrian and Matisse as well as old masters, Art Deco pieces and antique bronzes, Saint Laurent and Berge assembled what is said to be one of the world's great private collections to decorate their Paris homes and country hideouts.

"It's an historic collection and this is a chance to see key works that would otherwise be in museums," said banker Bernard Alioth, who aims to bid for Art Deco and 18th century pieces at the auction, expected to fetch up to €300 million.

London art dealer Ian Mackenzie, interested in buying contemporary pieces, dubbed it "a fantastic show", while Munich dealer Wolff Roland said that while any piece would "be easy to sell", the quality was such that "maybe I'll keep them for myself."

Some 600 high-end buyers and museums able to afford some of the more prestigious multi-million-dollar works on sale had been offered private viewings inside the Saint Laurent apartment ahead of the weekend exhibition.

Christie's also took some of the star pieces to show potential buyers in New York, London and Brussels, while Berge on Friday evening organised a VIP showing for 2,000 fashion, arts and design celebrities at the Grand Palais.

From a Cubist-period Picasso to a Brancusi sculpture never seen in public and a rare Eileen Gray designer chair, Berge and Saint Laurent decorated their homes in a crossover of styles that came to epitomise quintessential Parisian taste.

"People are proud of what these two men have achieved and very proud of the collection," said Jonathan Rendell, deputy chairman Christie's Americas. "It's magic. You've got the combination of the quality of the material and the name of the collectors."

He added: "We've never done this big an event."

Berge, who is 78, decided to part with the collection following Saint Laurent's death last June at the age of 71 and aims to donate the proceeds to a fund to fight Aids as well as to a foundation honouring YSL's work. And many of the visitors queuing up to see the works had come to honour Saint Laurent.

"He was the greatest designer alive," said Mireille Berstein, who took a two-hour train ride to Paris to visit the show. "A page in French couture history is being turned," said another woman, "and a part of our heritage is about to be dispersed."

In one last-minute hiccup, an €80,000 statuette toppled and lost an arm as the display opened to the public. The 18th-century ivory-and-wood figure of Jupiter lost its right arm when it fell, along with several others, as a handler accidentally moved a display case on opening its lid.

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