Fit for a King

Some 50 decorative pieces designed by Jacques Garcia, known for his re-creations of 18th-century interiors, were auctioned in the Château de Versailles, outside Paris, on March 31. The featured lots—an assortment of velvet-draped display cabinets and trompe-l’oeil furnishings in painted board—were used to showcase “Quand Versailles était meublé d’argent” (“When Versailles Was Furnished in Silver”), held November 21, 2007 to March 9, 2008, at the château. The exhibition of silver furniture, sculpture and decorations from courts across Europe evoked the 17th-century designs commissioned from Charles Le Brun for Versailles. (In 1689 Louis XIV melted down the originals to help finance his war effort.)

The highest price of the auction—which raised €95,400 ($152,000) for the château’s collections—was €15,000 ($24,000) for a tiered buffet, pictured below, used to display vases, candlesticks and silver dishes. The full-size replica of the throne made for Louis XIV to receive representatives of the Siamese embassy in the Hall of Mirrors was expected to climax the sale but instead took in only €6,100 ($9,700), against its ambitious estimate of €15,000 ($24,000). The second highest price was for a two-tier display buffet in red velvet with gold thread, which fetched €14,000 ($22,300), followed by a €10,000 ($16,000) bid for a similar buffet. A pair of painted-wood “light pyramids” designed to hold 28 small candles earned the sale’s fourth-highest bid, €6,200 ($9,900). The lots may not be of a scale and grandeur well suited to the average home, but many were snapped up by an anonymous English estate owner.

The auction was conducted by Rémy Le Fur, 49, who, since leaving Artcurial a year ago, has teamed up with couturier Pierre Cardin to create AuctionArt. Although an eight-year noncompete clause throttled Le Fur’s original hopes of joining Christie’s, he won Artcurial’s blessing to violate the agreement for his venture with Cardin: “They took it well. It’s not like joining an Anglo-Saxon competitor,” say  Le Fur. AuctionArt will have offices on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré; sales—the first is slated for June 17—will be held at the Espace Pierre Cardin, just off the Champs-Élysées.

"Fit for a King" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.