The overall estimate from the two auctions’ 718 lots was $923,000, says the auction house’s founder Colin Stair, and they achieved just under $1.6 million. “It was just wildly successful,” Stair says. “The stuff took off—lots of traction.”
The forthcoming auctions, he continues, “should just skyrocket at Christie’s. Her taste comes through every time.”
High Value Lots
The sales at Christie’s will represent the bulk of the Gutfreunds’ high-value possessions. Assembled by Susan Gutfreund and French decorator Henri Samuel, the overall aesthetic falls under “classical French.”
“This collection reflects Susan’s far-ranging and adventurous and individual tastes,” says Strafford.
There’s a two-foot-high, late-Victorian model of a British country home clad in mother-of-pearl and set in a glass vitrine (estimate: $6,000 to $10,000); a 13 foot-long yellow and white striped couch that was “reputedly” made for the Château de Saint Cloud (estimate: $30,000 to $50,000); and a pair of shimmering gold, orb-like ceiling lights made by Tiffany Studios in about 1910 (estimate: $3,000 to $5,000).
“This is an amazing opportunity for collectors to buy great works of art,” Strafford says, “but also to experience a vision which you just never see today.”
Given that the entire house was designed as a gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), there are no standout, high-profile individual objects.
The most expensive piece in the sale is a comparatively affordable painting of Mary Magdalene from 1571 by the Flemish artist Jan Massys. Estimated from $120,000 to $130,000, “it’s very grand late-baroque,” Strafford says.
Another one is a massive, 34-foot-long carpet designed by Robert Adam from about 1770, “one of those grand English country house carpets,” Strafford says. “When it came on the open market in the 1970s, it belonged to the earls of Shrewsbury.” It carries an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
Although at one moment the Gutfreund name was synonymous with Wall Street and power, Strafford says he doesn’t expect it to carry much weight at this point. “Unless you’re selling Elizabeth Taylor, whose name alone is completely iconic, it’s less about the individual name and more about what the sale represents,” he says.
This sale, he says, will “undoubtedly attract a number of people who’ve never heard of the Gutfreunds but who want a pass at that connoisseurial lifestyle, which is almost out of reach.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.