The last week of the auction in Paris had surprises and rarities to offer. The extravagant “Hippopotame Bar” by François-Xavier Lalanne was the top lot in the design auction at Sotheby's. The two-meter-long hippopotamus made of bronze, copper and brass turns out to be a bar as soon as the folding doors on the mouth, back and flanks are opened. Inside there is space for glasses and bottles, and snacks can be fished out of the open mouth. The design work of art has been in the same collection since its creation in 1986. In 2017, a Lalanne Straussvogel bar at Sotheby's in Paris reached six times its estimate for 5.35 million euros. The Hippo-Bar doubled the expectation (2/3 million euros) and was raised to 5.2 million euros.
In the “Exceptional Sale”, Christie's brings together historical treasures from antiquity to modern times. A carpet from the Chinese Ming dynasty came under the hammer as a top lot. It was woven in the 16th century for the imperial palace of the "Forbidden City" and shows a stylized landscape with two dragons. The rarity - four and a half by five meters - was last in a Swiss collection. The bidding skirmish was held online for thirteen minutes until the bid was awarded at 5.8 million euros (3.5 / 4.5 million).
The French auction house Tajan teamed up with Christie's to auction 27 paintings and drawings from the Marcille collection. It was founded in the 19th century by François Marcille and, with 4600 works, was one of the most important collections specializing in the 18th and first half of the 19th century before it was torn apart by inheritance. All works in the offer changed hands, some well above the estimate. Paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin rarely come onto the market. "Femme à la Fontaine" was estimated at 5 to 8 million euros, the hammer fell at 6 million. Nevertheless, the work doubled the Chardin record, which was set in 2013 at Christie's in New York with “La Brodeuse”.
When the storyboard of Alejandro Jodorowsky for the never finished science fiction film “Dune” was called up at Christie's auction with books and manuscripts, a bidding war was to be expected.
His project to film the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert has cult status.
The storyboard reached 2.2 million euros, almost a hundred times its lower estimate.
The handwriting of a genius went far higher: an Albert Einstein manuscript reached a hotly contested 11.6 million euros (2/3 million).
The physicist wrote the 54-page document in 1913/14 with Michele Besso.
It is one of only two known working documents by the Nobel Prize winner on the emergence of general relativity.