World-renowned French designer and collector Jacques Garcia will auction a selection of 75 works of art, many of which once belonged to royalty and nobility, to raise funds for the preservation of his Champ de Bataille, the largest private park in Europe.
Garcia has decorated rooms in the Louvre and Versailles and luxury hotels, such as the La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech and Hotel Costes in Paris. His Sicilian home, Villa Elena, was recently featured in the HBO series The White Lotus. Garcia himself restored the baroque interiors of the villa, which had been destroyed in 1693.
French architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia at an award giving ceremony at IMA on March 13, 2015 in Paris.
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In 1992, Garcia acquired Château du Champ de Bataille in the French region of Upper Normandy. It was originally designed by Louis le Vau, the architect behind Versailles, in the mid-17th century.
After purchasing the property, he restored and renovated the buildings that had deteriorated so badly that only two of the rooms were still usable. Garcia decorated the interiors with porcelain, sculpture, and decorative arts that belonged to Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, Queens Marie Leszczynska and Marie-Antoinette, King William III, Queen Mary II, Emperor Napoleon, and dynastic collectors such as the Rothschilds.
Today, the Champ De Bataille estate, covering an area of more than 111 acres, is the largest private park in Europe opening to the public.
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A selection of 75 works of art handpicked by Garcia from the Champ De Bataille estate, marking his 75th birthday, will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Paris on May 16, with proceeds going to support its perseverance.
On offer will be several pieces of neoclassical-style furniture designed by Parisian maker Georges Jacob for Queen Marie-Antoinette, including two pairs of armchair and a canape, each estimated in the region of €400,000 and €600,000 (US$436,000 and US$653,000).
Another highlight is a pair of cabinets decorated with Japanese lacquer and silver mounts from the Edo Period (Circa 1640-1680), that were in the collection of King William III And Queen Mary II Of England. The pair is expected to sell for between €800,000 and €1.2 million.
The sale also features a pair of large “Lagrenée’” vases, made by the Sèvres Factory, the finest porcelain manufactory in Europe from the mid-18th century. Made in 1797, this pair has been in a number of prominent European collections, including King Charles IV Of Spain, Alexander Hamilton of Scotland, the 10th Duke Of Hamilton, and William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas-Hamilton, The 12th Duke Of Hamilton. The pair has an estimate of between €800,000 and €1.2 million.
Credit: marketwatch.com