Gazette Drouot - C apencheres

AUCTION RESULTS THE MAGAZINE
The Zaira and Marsel Mis Collection
Three days after the FIAC ended, a Belgian
collection owned by Zaira and Marsel Mis
made the Paris market the star of the international
modern and contemporary scene.
And Paris fulfilled its potential: the overall
estimate was around €10m, but the 61 pieces in the
collection that were sold obtained €19,069,925. Zaira,
who comes from a family of art lovers and patrons in
Turin, became the ambassador of the young Italian
scene in Belgium. In 1989 she took over as head of the
Artiscope gallery, founded in 1977. A textile engineer,
Marsel focused on traditional Oriental fabrics; a large
part of his collection has joined Taipei's National Palace
Museum. The result is a rich, varied collection split
between Belgian, Italian and American artists that
fetched 13 six-figure bids and four over a million. René
Magritte was the big winner, totalling €7,422,250 for
three pieces, including “La Grande table”, an oil on
canvas from around 1962-1963 that netted €5,104,750.
This was the first time it had ever come up at auction; in
USEFUL INFO
Where ? Paris - Galerie Charpentier
When ? Sotheby's France
Who ? 24 Octobre
How much ? €19,069,925
€5,104,750 René Magritte (1898-1967), “La Grande Table”,
oil on canvas. 54.3 x 65.4 cm, ca. 1962-63.
N° 19 I GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL
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the 1980s the Mis's acquired the work from a collector
who had bought it directly from the artist. “La Grande
table” broke the French record for a Magritte before
joining a European collection.
American art was primarily represented by Andy
Warhol, whose “Four Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal
Series)”, an acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas from
1979-1986, was bought by an American collector for
€3,200,750, surpassing the estimate. Warhol began the
Reversal Series in 1979, and our painting features the
first re-use of the star's face, which appeared in his
world in 1962. A European art lover bought a 1961
Alexander Calder mobile that had belonged to
the decorator Henri Samuel for €3,032,750, double the
estimate. Sylvain Alliod
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