The seventy-three pieces from the private collection of André Malraux have been sold at auction 437.672 euros, or four times their estimate. Objects of art first, furniture, and manuscripts of the author of Hope were assembled for this sale at Artcurial.
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The two works of Georges Braque, with whom André Malraux had a deep friendship, have attracted the highest bid. The lithograph, 1961, Birds in the foliage , flew to 54.600 euros, while the oil on paper of 1963, Sky and bird , was awarded to 46.800 euros, double its estimate.
A pastel and felt pen on paper made in 1967 by Joan Miro and dedicated to Malraux was sold for ten times its estimate at 33.800 euros, while a lithograph by Pablo Picasso, representing a Portrait of Jacqueline with folded hands , signed «To André Malraux, his friend Picasso» has reached 16.900 euros.
the office of The writer, which is installed in his private home in Verrières-le-Buisson, has reached 44.200 euros, or ten times its estimate. On this piece of furniture in a rustic style, Malraux wrote his last works.
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The sale has allowed them to better discover an aspect of the personality of André Malraux: fascinated since childhood by the drawing, he offered regularly to her relatives and friends of the illustrations he called «dyables». André Malraux had shared a period of his life with Louise de Vilmorin, and then, after the death of the latter in 1969, with his niece, Sophia, until his death in 1976.
The house Artcurial had received the mandate of the descendants of Sophie de Vilmorin, the last companion of André Malraux. A descendant of André Malraux, Alain Malraux, nephew and son-in-law of the former minister, who felt that the dispersion in the auction, infringes the moral right and heritage of Malraux, failed to suspend by the justice. The court has declared admissible the action of Alain Malraux, but felt that it «did not provide evidence of the irregular nature of the possession of objects, manuscripts, paintings, the family of Vilmorin held in their castle of Glass».
