2023-08-21 18:47:15
Art dealer Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr, founder of the eponymous family auction house, died on Sunday August 20 at the age of 84 in Saint-Tropez where he lived.
French high-profile auctioneer known to all of Paris on the art market, Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr died, according to the eponymous auction house, on Sunday August 20 at the age of 84 in Saint-Tropez (Var) , where he resided. He founded his family auction house in 1973, later joined by his two sons, Arnaud and Bertrand. It was acquired by Bonhams in 2022.
Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr specialized in contemporary art at an early age and chaired the Palais de Tokyo in Paris from 2003 to 2012. He was renowned for his celebrity and charity sales in France.
Exceptional sales
His house, established in the famous avenue Hoche in Paris and chaussée de Charleroi in Brussels, notably organized the sales of collections such as that of modern paintings by Alain Delon in 2007, the estate of the Franco-Japanese painter Foujita in 2011, the furniture from the Hôtel Royal Monceau in 2008 or from the collection of Hélène Rochas in 2016.
The auctioneer Pierre Cornette de St-Cyr attends with his wife Marie Laforêt the auction of “Clos Montmartre 1976” on October 6, 1977 in Paris. Many artists have personalized cases of six bottles, fifty of which were presented at auction. (- / AFP)
Born on January 1, 1939 in Meknes, Morocco, this collector of old drawings and photographs had begun engineering studies before taking up the profession of auctioneer. He begins to collect drawings and by chance buys a drawing by François Verdier, pupil and assistant of Charles Lebrun during the reign of Louis XIV. One followedobsessional neurosis” of the curation that he tells on the set of Thierry Ardisson during the promotion of his book Art is life.
Memorable encounters
Very shy in his early days as an auctioneer, he became one of the figures in the business and organized numerous auctions for the benefit of charities such as Reporters Without Borders. “For me, a room is one person. It’s a woman. I have to maintain a process of seduction“, says Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr on the set of “Everyone talks about it” with Thierry Ardisson.
Jacques Hintzy, President of Unicef France, Maitre Georges Delettrez, Delphine Arnault, Alain Delon, Maitre Pierre Cornette De Saint Cyr and Laeticia Hallyday at the De Frimousses De Créateurs (Designer Dolls) auction, in aid of UNICEF for the ‘Drouot Montaigne Auction House. (BERTRAND RINDOFF PETROFF / FRENCH SELECT)
His career is strewn with exceptional encounters, such as Mother Teresa, Alain Delon or Johnny Halliday. Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr organizes a charity sale for Mother Teresa at the Palm Beach in Cannes. He writes in his book Art is life, that he finds in the blue of the painter Yves Klein, the same spirituality as in the eyes of Mother Teresa.
Collector’s flair
He also recounts the rise of Andy Warhol, a personality so strong that it almost eclipsed his work: “During his lifetime, his paintings were not worth much. I bought Marylin from a Swiss-German dealer which was barely worth 50,000 francs“, he says on the set of Thierry Ardisson. The talent of Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr is exercised in the many bargains he unearths throughout his career. He thus buys 200,000 francs, one of the seven missing panels representing the scenes of the Passion of Christ by the so-called Master of the Passion of Karlsruhe, name given by convention to a Gothic painter from the Upper Rhine who painted between 1435 and 1450. He will resell this painting 28 million francs.
According to him, a good collector is above all a connoisseur: “you have to know, art can be learned. You also always have to collect beyond your means. Buy only masterpieces“, he explained on the set of “Everyone talks about it”.
Bonhams had bought the family house in 2022. This British auction house has 14 sales rooms around the world, in which it organizes physical and online sales, and more than sixty departments in all fields (impressionism, art modern art, contemporary art, Asian art, whisky, collector’s weapons, vintage cars, celebrity memorabilia, NFTs…).
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