After the 2008 death of the couturier Yves Saint Laurent, his partner Pierre Bergé sold their jointly owned collection of art and antiquities for a massive €374.4m. Now Bergé has engaged the French auction house Artcurial to dispose of a collection that furnished their villa and garden complex in Marrakesh, Morocco, including pieces from an on-site museum. The proceeds of the sale, expected to be between €400,000 and €500,000, will go to the Fondation Jardin Majorelle, a charitable foundation that manages the complex, and towards a new Yves Saint Laurent museum, due to open nearby in 2017. The 240 lots going under the hammer at the Es Saadi Palace hotel in Marrakesh, on 31 October, comprise Moroccan, Islamic and Orientalist art and craftworks, plus furniture designed by the Marrakesh jet-set’s favourite interior designer, Bill Willis. The top lot is a pair of 17th-century carved wooden mosque doors (est €20,000-€30,000).
