Our biggest customers are the complex of the masterpiece

Our biggest customers are the complex of the masterpiece. The most beautiful, the rarest and most beautiful provenance. "Maurice Segoura, antique dealer specialized in 18th-century French furniture, knew well respond to this kind of application. Active for forty years, the lion of the profession, whose last professional address has been hôtel de Clermont-Tonerre, place François-I, has closed the doors of his gallery in June, at seventy-five years. In the context current down general demand for classic furniture, furniture Art Deco competition announcement resonated as a clap of Thunder. The end of an era. The exercise will be permanently closed on 19 October, when Christie's will be dispersed 236 lots that were still in his gallery, plus a few personal pieces. It cannot be said that these auction, estimated at a total of 7 to 10 million, are a summary of the taste Segoura. The sale contains a few lots exceptionnels, but he clear Maurice Segoura didn't need the help of Christie's to find the most important customers for its objects.

The catalogue is designed in the form of tribute with Lily Safra such business relationship signed glowing texts, widow of the banker Edmond Safra, Albert brother, Belgian businessman, or Daniel Alcouffe, former Director of the furniture Department of the Louvre. The credits of his clients was considerable, Getty to Bernard Arnault, of Giovanni Agnelli to American financier Henry Kravis.

One of his relatives, the couturier Hubert de Givenchy, declared in his remarks: "Maurice Segoura like great music", i.e. in terms of insiders exception furniture designed for the Kings and the great aristocracy. The most relevant evidence of this type is represented on 19 October by a chest of drawers designed during the reign of Louis XV. Six pages of the catalogue are devoted to this lot, estimated $ 1.5 million. For the expert at Christie's, Adrien Meyer: "It is one of style the most beautiful dressers"rock garden"that exists." It was conducted by Jean-Pierre Latz, privileged cabinetmaker of the King in the 1740s. "In addition to the General line of furniture, the price of one such piece is quality and the design of the bronzes. Here, they form a kind of plant coil which adorns the edges and the center of the marquetée convenient. Known three comparable copies, which is at the Getty Museum, the other in Rome, Palazzo Quirinale, memories of the passage from Madame Infante, eldest daughter of Louis XV, and the last in a French private collection.

Among the lots which should generate great interest, there is also a spectacular time console Louis XVI attributed to Georges Jacob, who would have belonged to the collections of the Palace of the Tuileries. A plateau in green marble, feet, and a spacer richly carved and gilded... It should be awarded for more catalogue estimate $ 150,000. Russian furniture market is growing exponentially as currently in art, all that is Russian, sought-after of the nouveaux riches of this country and the Agnelli sale in New York in October 2004 a bronze of the original console had been awarded for 400,000 dollars. The private collection of the Antiquarian contained a spectacular pair of the same kind that it offers for sale. Manufactured circa 1800, they are in gilded bronze, marble and Jasper green, and (the pair) are estimated at EUR 500 000.

Lower call prices

In General, the experts at Christie's were extremely cautious in estimating. Thus a dresser Louis XVI mahogany veneer, the Antiquarian had bought at auction in December 2004 for 170,000 euros, is presented in New York with an estimate of 120,000 euros. It is one of the conditions to attract potential buyers while all the parts were even proposed on the market a few months earlier. This policy is reinforced by the fact that all batches whose value is less than US $ 20,000 are available without reserve price (1). A provision required for the request, attracted by prices of low appeal, is interested in this mass of exhibits a coup placing on the market and made up in large number of clocks and small tables tell "tables to write".

That said, the fact that the dispersion takes place in NYC, epicenter of the customer of Maurice Segoura, and that it is a tribute to this great professional, it is expected to attract many candidates wishing to have a last souvenir of the activity. Moreover, more prosaically, Christie's, who has made a specialty of dispersions of antique Fund, sold with great success in May the "relics" of Partridge was the 18th specialist in London for several decades. 91 of the lots found then lessee for $ 14.9 million to an estimate of $ 11 million.

No doubt. The market for French furniture of the 18th century must now find new markers, passing through still lower estimates for sale at auction, and exceptional parts in antique shops in this area.