Christie’s has spent $1.2 million alone on renting and refurbishing 140,000 square feet of the Grand Palais for the auction. There are going to be organized six separate sales over three days, beginning on Monday night with Impressionist and modern art. There is a total amount of 690 lots in the auction ranging from the stunning to the more mundane. For instance, a 19th-century Indian dagger with a rock-crystal handle is estimated at around $500 to $760.

 

Christie’s has been sending experts from New York to live in Paris for several months in order to give tours of the Saint Laurent apartment to rich clients and potential buyers, especially collectors of similar paintings or other pieces of art.

 

Thomas Seydoux, an expert in Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, said the auction presented a rare opportunity to buy certain 20th-century works. He added for Le Monde that people do not seem to be able to distinguish between what is beautiful and what is exceptional in times of euphoria.

 

To secure the auction Christie’s decided to share the billing, and presumably some of the commissions, with Mr. Bergé’s firm, Pierre Bergé & Associés.

 

Interest is not limited to the French, therefore the city’s fancier hotels are reported to be totally booked for the duration of the sale, which will be accompanied by many grand social events.