Alain Delon's collection sold at auction

The collection of Alain Delon, the great film icon of the 1960s and 1970s and one of the leading sex symbols of all time, was sold at auction at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris . The sale of the 83 lots auctioned (and awarded 98 percent of them) brought in a total of 8 million euros, against a pre-sale estimate of 4 million euros. In a packed hall, buyers competed with great participation for the big names passionately collected by Alain Delon.

Delon, born in 1935, was a discerning and passionate art collector. His acting career began in the late 1950s, but it was mainly between the 1960s and 1970s that he achieved great success in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), or The Leopard (1963) until he reached Notre Histoire (1984) for which he won the César Award for Best Actor. Admired for his looks, Delon is also celebrated for his skill as an actor and has worked with the leading directors of his time, including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Pierre Melville, Louis Malle, and Jean-Luc Godard. He was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1991 and received an honorary Golden Bear and an honorary Palme d’Or.

His collection is very diverse, focusing mainly on names inmodern art but not disdaining some old masters as well. The main lot was a painting by Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), La baie de Sainte-Adresse, 1906, which sold for 1,016,400 euros (pictured below), against an initial estimate of 600-800,000 euros. Also worth mentioning is Eugène Delacroix ’s (1798-1863) Arabian Horse Tied to a Stake, which sold for €775,100, more than double the minimum estimate, and three outstanding works by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), namely a bronze statuette of a crouching Lioness that demonstrates how the artist managed to capture in bronze the beauty of animals and at the same time a sense of their vulnerability (estimated 250.000-300,000, sold for €533,800), and then a Panther sold for €508,400 and a Lion sold for €483,000. Also among the major works was a Landscape (1914-1915) by Albert Gleizes (1881-1953), which illustrates the new Cubist tendencies embraced by Gleizes after the publication in 1912 of his work Du Cubisme, written with Jean Metzinger. It sold for €356,000. Still, two works by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) sold for astonishing prices: a painting titled Paysannes au repos sold for €241,700 and La La Laitière normande, a charcoal drawing estimated between €100,000 and €150,000, sold for €216,300. Also, a view of Genoa(Gênes, un bout de la ville et les Apennins, a delicate oil on canvas from 1834 by Camille Corot (1796-1875), sold for 229,000 euros, double the minimum estimate.

There are also many Italian artists in Delon’s collection. A small pen and watercolor drawing by Domenico Beccafumi depicting St. Anthony on the recto and Kneeling Women on the reverse sold for €241,700, four times the lowest estimate. Also passed in the auction were a drawing by Veronese (a St. George and the dragon), which sold for €82,950, a drawing depicting a Christ on the Cross by Guercino, which sold for €140,100, a drawing by Grechetto (The Family of Darius in front of Alexander), which sold for €95,560, and a Study of Two Orientals by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , which sold for €35,840

Arnaud Cornette de Saint Cyr, president of Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris, said, “Alain Delon’s collection, which has been admired from Hong Kong to New York to Paris, has been an unprecedented success, grossing 8 million euros, more than double its lowest estimate. Alain Delon is a living legend of cinema. His taste and eye have been acclaimed all over the world. It was a great honor for Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr to present this sublime collection and it is not surprising that it attracted such passionate bidding at this exceptional sale.”

Alain Delon's collection sold at auction

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