Courtesy Louis Vuitton Foundation

Bernard Arnault (right) with starchitect Frank Gehry, lost a bidding war with Francois Pinault at Sotheby's last week.

Courtesy Palazzo Grassi

Francois Pinault acquired both Yves Klein’s "MG 9" (c. 1962) and his "IKB" (1960).

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In the midst of fevered bidding for Yves Klein’s rare and masterful monochrome MG 9 in gold leaf on canvas from circa 1962, Tobias looked in the direction of bidder Philippe Segalot and quipped, “You’re bidding against your archenemy” before taking another bid from Sotheby’s Paris-based specialist Grégoire Billault, stationed at a telephone bank at the front of the salesroom. While some in the audience chuckled at the comment, the bidding escalated to a record $21 million (est. $6-8 million) hammer price.

After a moment's pause, Billault and Segalot went at it again on the next lot, Klein’s IKB (1960), a stunning monochrome in his patented blue. Again Meyer repeated the “archenemy” designation, drawing more laughter from those paying close attention to the duel, and again Segalot won the battle, this time with a final bid of $15.5 million (est. $5–7 milllion).

So who were the mystery bidders? Keep in mind there are only so many billionaires in the world and only so many willing to spend that much on Klein, one of France’s greatest postwar artists.

ARTINFO has learned from trusted sources that Segalot was bidding for both Kleins on behalf of French billionaire Francois Pinault, whose holding company Artemis S.A. owns Christie’s. Billault was on the phone with Bernard Arnault, the seventh richest man in the world, who has battled Pinault in the luxury goods and fashion market for years. Arnault, who once owned Phillips de Pury & Co. and tried unsuccessfully to take over Sotheby’s during its antitrust troubles, underwrote the major Klein retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris last year and is a major Klein collector himself.

“Arnault didn’t get either one,” said a London dealer who attended the sale, “and I know those two were battling for it.”

One might wonder why Pinault, ranked “only” 34 in Forbes’s rich list managed to outgun the much wealthier Arnault for both works.

“It shows the difference between a driven collector,” says an art world source who knows both billionaires, “and a guy who’s just buying trophies.”

Judd Tully is Editor at Large for Art+Auction magazine. For more on the May sales, read his A+A Sales Preview, his pre-sale Overvalued/Undervalued column, and his report on Christie's postwar and contemporary sale.