Fashion designer Kenzo Takada’s art collection goes under the hammer

Paris auction fetches €1.9m; pre-Angkorian statue is the top-selling lot at €108,500

By Anna Sansom | Web only
Published online 1 Jul 09 (market)

Paris. Kenzo Takada, the Japanese fashion designer, has sold his eclectic art collection at auction for €1.9m (est €1.5m-€1.8m). The auction, by Aguttes, Paris, on 16-17 June, consisted of around 1,100 lots, 75% of which sold. It follows the sale of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in February for €373m. “Yves Saint Laurent was the pope of haute couture while Kenzo is a pop star,” said Jean-Luc Estournel, an independent expert who worked on Kenzo’s sale. “Yves Saint Laurent’s collection addressed millionaire collectors; Kenzo’s was for ‘normal’ collectors.”

Kenzo reportedly sold his collection, ranging from sacred art, Chinese antiquities, European decorative arts, photography and tribal art, to help clear his debts. He bought most of the pieces in the early 1990s from antique dealers on the Left Bank and at Paris’s Biennale des Antiquaires to decorate his Japanese wood-and-glass house, complete with a Japanese garden, bamboo terraces and an indoor swimming pool, near Bastille. Designed by Kenzo with Xavier de Castella, the 1,300 sq. m townhouse, built in 1989, was sold for close to €12m in February to Pascal Breton, a French TV producer, who has also bought some of Kenzo’s objects. The house, furnished with Kenzo’s collection, was visited by 3,000 people in May prior to the sale, and a thick catalogue was produced.

The top-selling lot was a small, gold, pre-Angkorian statue, representing feminine divinity, from the eighth century, which sold for €108,500 (est €60,000-€80,000; all prices include buyer’s premium) to a private European collector. This was followed by a rare Buddha statue from the Pagan empire for €63,754 (est €60,000-€80,000) and a pair of wooden mingqi (tomb figures) from the third or fourth century BC, also for €63,754 (est €40,000-€60,000).

Other pieces included a Gandhara Bodhisattava sculpture for €40,802 (est €35,000-€45,000), a Sandro Chia painting for €31,877 (est €30,000-€40,000), a trompe l’oeil bookcase by Pierre Skira for €29,326 (est €30,000-€40,000), and Chinese horse figurines, also mingqi, for €26,776 and €28,051 (est for each: €15,000-€25,000). A folding screen designed by Kenzo for Baccarat crystal company sold for €22,951 (est €15,000-€20,000) and a painting by Kenzo depicting the back of a tattooed man sold for €21,676 (est €15,000-€20,000).

Two significant lots—a wooden Han dynasty horse sculpture (est €80,000-€100,000) and the body of a Buddha from between the second and fourth centuries (est €30,000-€40,000)—failed to sell. The fact that both require extensive restoration is believed to have discouraged buyers.

Kenzo moved to Paris from Japan in 1965, founded his label in 1970, and sold his company in 1993 to LVMH, having found success by using kimono prints and Japanese influences such as kabuki in his designs. His approach to buying art was based on creating harmony and serenity in his home. “If I saw something very beautiful that wouldn’t go well with the house, I didn’t buy it,” he explained. “I’m not a collector, but I began to bring together objects from China, Thailand and Africa.”

Kenzo, who continues to collaborate with Baccarat, Royal Limoges and Tai Ping Carpets, is moving into a 250 sq. m apartment on the Left Bank. “There are many pieces in my collection with a lot of attachments. It’s a bit hard to think that I am separating myself from all that,” he said before the sale. “Certainly, I’ll buy new things. I’ll start from zero again.”