Saint Laurent auction rakes in nearly US$500 millionCET6考试

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2009:04:09 23:09:32
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

　　French businessman Pierre Berge and former partner of late fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent speaks to the audience after the auction Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, at the Grand Palais in Paris. 733 works of art collected over half a century by French fashion icon Yves Saint-Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, are being auctioned by Christies through until Wednesday 25, with a sale expected to gross euro 200-300 million ($250-380 million). A portion of the proceeds will go to support AIDS research.
　　PARIS – Two rare bronze sculptures that disappeared from China nearly 150 years ago — and demanded back by Beijing — sold for millions Wednesday as an auction of art works owned by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent concluded with dazzling sales of nearly $500 million.
　　The collection of Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, broke several world records in a three-day "sale of the century" that amassed more than $484 million (euro373 million), said the organizer, Christies.
　　That was well over the euro200 million-euro300 million ($250 million-$380 million) the 733-piece sale had been expected to fetch. Berge told reporters at the closing news conference he was "very, very happy with the result."
　　"I considered that with the death of Yves Saint Laurent that this collection had reached its end, that it was finished," Berge said. "I am sure that those who bought these works of art are going to welcome them ... with the same passion that Yves and I had during so many years."
　　Saint Laurent, who is widely credited with modernizing womens wardrobes by popularizing ladies pants, died in June at age 71 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
　　The disputed bronze fountainheads — heads of a rat and a rabbit that disappeared from Chinas Summer Imperial Palace in 1860 — were sold for euro14 million ($18 million) each to an unidentified telephone bidder or bidders.
　　Christies executives declined to name the winning bidders, comparing the auctioneers duty to protect buyers privacy to a doctors duty to protect that of his patient.
　　Berge added only that "it was not me."
　　Chinas State Administration of Cultural Heritage wrote to Christies last week urging it to stop the auction, Chinas official Xinhua News Agency reported. An agency spokesman said Christies had replied, but declined to discuss specifics, the report said.
　　Berge insisted the auction should go ahead as planned, and on Monday a French judge refused a request to halt the sale of the artifacts.
　　From the start, the auction appeared to ignore the controversy — and the world financial crisis.
　　That was welcome news for a world art market worried that the global economic crisis is cutting into art investments, and for Christies, which wants the auction to boost flagging sales.
　　Berge said the results proved he had been right to ignore the advice of friends telling to hold onto the collection until the crisis abated.
　　"When we provide buyers with quality works of art, the buyers are there," said Berge, who said he would use a large portion of the proceeds to support AIDS research.
　　The issue threatened to further strain relations between France and China, frayed over French boycotts in the run-up to last summers Olympic Games and French President Nicolas Sarkozys talks with Tibets exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
　　Chinese anger led to protests and calls for a boycott of French products.
　　On Wednesday, dozens of people stood outside the auctions venue distributing pamphlets urging the pieces return — but the well-heeled crowd of buyers and spectators breezed by them.
　　Other pieces sold Wednesday night included a 16th century, gilded Buddha statue, also from China, a collection of daggers from Turkey and India and a pair of Louis XV velvet couches.
　　In the auctions second round Tuesday night, 19th century paintings and 20th century decorative artworks took in a total of euro101 million, according to Christies.
　　The auction house said an armchair embellished with snakes and designed by Eileen Gray set a record for a piece of 20th century furniture, selling at euro21.9 million. Snakes fascinated Saint Laurent. A vase with a serpent by Jean Dunand sold for euro270,000 — nine times higher than the highest pre-auction estimate.
　　Another threshold was passed for a painting by Ingres, "Portrait de la comtesse de La Rue" (Portrait of the Countess of La Rue), which sold for euro2.081 million ($2.66 million), a record for the French neoclassical painter, Christies said.
　　On the auctions opening day Monday, "Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose" (The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric), a 1911 oil painting by Henri Matisse, fetched euro32.1 million. That was a record auction price for a work by the French artist, Christies said.
　　A rare Picasso from the Spanish artists cubist period that was expected to be the sales highest fetching lot did not sell in the end.
　　Other top-selling pieces included a wooden sculpture by Romanias Constantin Brancusi that fetched euro26 million, a 1922 painting by Piet Mondrian that had inspired Saint Laurents iconic 1965 shift dress, and a snake embellished armchair that set a record for a piece of 20th-century furniture, selling at euro21.9 million.
　　Saint Laurents enormous collection, gathered over a half century, was put on public view in New York and London before coming to Paris. The designer died last year at age 71.