An 18th century statue from the country retreat of Yves Saint Laurent, is one of 1,185 lots to be auctioned next week in the second part of this year’s record-smashing YSL-Pierre Berge “sale of the century”.

The four-day auction of furniture, a billiard table and several giant chandeliers that belonged to the late designer and his partner is expected to raise up to €4 million (£3.5 million) at Christie’s France. His S-class Mercedes-Benz and Hermès crocodile leather suitcases will also be offered. The auction of his art collection in February raised a record €342.5 million. Although there are no important art works in this sale, the auction house is expecting considerable interest.

Pierre Bergé, an arts patron and partner of Saint Laurent opted to sell the collection amassed over a lifetime after Saint Laurent’s death.

He said he would offer the entire proceeds of the sale in November and some of the money raised at the February auction to fight AIDS.

“It is a misconception to think AIDS is like other illnesses,” Mr Bergé, 78, said. “We are not at the end of the tunnel, we are travelling further down the tunnel.”

Lots at the auction come mainly from their three-storey Chateau Gabriel on the Normandy coast — a rambling place with a sea views and vast grounds that was built in 1874. They bought it in the 1980s and redecorated in to evoke Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and Luchino Visconti’s final film The Innocent.

“All of this belonged to Saint Laurent and Bergé, it was part of their intimacy, their universe,” Jonathan Rendell, deputy head of Christie’s America, said.“A lot of it is quirky but it was there with them at the weekends.”

François de Ricqlès, the deputy president of Christie’s France, said: “This auction is totally unlike the first, which was the sale of an art collection. There are no masterpieces this time, we’re not expecting to break market records.”

(AFP)

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