Yahoo Lifestyle EXCLUSIVE: Erotic Male Nudes to Headline Sotheby’s Yves Saint Laurent Sale
PARIS — Yves Saint Laurent’s erotic male nudes are expected to be among the star lots in an upcoming sale of art and objects from the private collection of the late designer and his partner Pierre Bergé.
Sotheby’s is offering more than 20 of the designer’s private drawings in the auction, titled “Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé: An Intimate Collection,” scheduled to coincide with Paris Men’s Fashion Week this month.
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“This unprecedented collection is the most significant of its kind ever presented at auction,” Sotheby’s said in a statement shared exclusively with WWD.
But unlike the drawings at the center of an international dispute in 2012, which Bergé claimed at the time were stolen, this group of risqué art works will come with an official certificate of authenticity from the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, said Florent Jeanniard, Sotheby’s chairman and co-worldwide head of design.
It marks the first time that Madison Cox, president of the foundation, and Maxime Catroux, its vice president, are certifying the designer’s sketches in a bid to stop the proliferation of counterfeits, he said.
The 40-odd items in the online sale, running from Jan. 16 to 30, come from the collection of a French seller who was close to fashion’s first couple.
“Yves Saint Laurent was a true artist, so they’re doing this work in the same way as the Picasso administration or the Lalanne administration. They just want to pre-empt any issues,” Jeanniard told WWD.
“What’s rather reassuring is that they know the provenance, since this person was close to Yves and Pierre, so he’s obviously someone they know,” he added.
The sale is running in parallel with the final chapter of the dispersal of Karl Lagerfeld’s personal collection, organized by the temporary executor for the designer’s estate appointed by a court in Monaco.
The timing reflects the ongoing public fascination with the two couturiers, who were friends, and then rivals, during their lifetime.
“The planets aligned, with both sales taking place during fashion week, so it’s perfect,” said Jeanniard, noting that leading fashion designers have always maintained close relationships with auction houses.
In 2009, mere months after Saint Laurent’s death from brain cancer, Bergé sold off the treasure trove of priceless art and furniture collected by the couple. The auction raised 374 million euros, making it the most expensive private collection ever to go under the hammer.
While Christie’s handled that sale, Sotheby’s later teamed up with Pierre Bergé & Associés to sell hundreds of items spanning from antiquity to modern art culled from the businessman’s homes in Paris, Normandy, Provence and Morocco.
“This is a small sale, in terms of the number of lots, but it’s significant as it’s rare nowadays to find items having belonged to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé,” Jeanniard said of the upcoming auction. “With such a magical provenance, we anticipate strong demand.”
Among the star lots on offer are rare items acquired by the couple from the renowned Kugel gallery, including a cameo-style porcelain medallion depicting a Roman soldier, dating from the 19th century, with an estimate of 1,500 euros to 2,000 euros.
There are photographs by Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Alice Springs and Martine Barrat, all of whom were members of their inner circle. They include several Polaroid portraits by Warhol, including one of a bare-chested Bergé — part of a set of two estimated at 4,000 euros to 6,000 euros.
But Jeanniard expects Saint Laurent’s steamy sketches to steal the show. They will be shown in a dedicated room during the public viewing, set to take place from Jan. 21 to 31 at Sotheby’s headquarters on Rue Saint-Honoré, due to the sensitive nature of the material.
“Our emails will clearly indicate that the drawings will be sent to clients on request, because some of them are more than a little saucy,” he said.
An image of two men embracing that was drawn on the back of a fashion sketch is believed to date back to the 1960s. Others are relatively recent and were frequently gifted to his lovers and friends.
Nonetheless, the expert believes they deserve to be treated as legitimate works of art, drawing a parallel with Michelangelo’s drawings of male nudes, Warhol’s homoerotic drawings from the 1950s or the works of Tom of Finland, which fetch between 15,000 euros and 30,000 euros at auction.
“Obviously, Yves Saint Laurent is not Tom of Finland,” he reflected. “His work is rooted in personal memories and intimate moments, but I do think we could be in for some positive surprises.”
He singled out an illustration of a phallic snake intertwined with a man’s legs, estimated at 4,000 euros to 6,000 euros, and a colorful portrait of a nude man in a red turban reclining against a lushly patterned backdrop.
“I think the drawings are really beautiful. He has a distinctive style,” Jeanniard said. “It’s also a tribute to his militant stance. He was open about his relationship with Pierre Bergé, at a time when the law still discriminated against homosexuals.”
The Lagerfeld sale, the fifth of its kind, will also include sketches and drawings, including some of his political cartoons for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; letters and albums; personal items such as music devices, and signature items of clothing such as Dior jackets, Hilditch & Key monogrammed shirts, and fingerless gloves.
Jeanniard noted that Sotheby’s sparked the current trend of drafting fashion designers as curators, having worked with Alexis Mabille on an exhibition of Cecil Beaton’s photographs in 2013.
Julien Dossena, creative director of Paco Rabanne, selected items for its last “Important Design” sale of exceptional masterpieces of 20th-century design, and the next one in May will be handpicked by Betty Catroux, Saint Laurent’s longtime muse and the widow of leading French interior decorator François Catroux.
“With this upcoming sale of items from Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, what’s great is that these were things they loved, so perhaps they have special significance,” said Jeanniard. “When objects have been selected by prestigious characters, it gives them that special something.”
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