At Sotheby’s New York on 22 April 2026, during the Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg, Design Masters live auction, Claude Lalanne’s Important and Unique Ensemble of Fifteen Mirrors for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé achieved $33.5 million (est. $10 million to $15 million). The result set a new auction record for the artist and became the highest price ever achieved for a work of design at auction, surpassing François-Xavier Lalanne’s Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique, which sold for $31.4 million in December 2025.
Pursued by five bidders over a ten-minute contest, the ensemble more than doubled its pre-sale high estimate, underscoring sustained global demand for works by Les Lalanne.
Commissioned in 1974 by Yves Saint Laurent for the Salon de Musique of his Paris residence, the ensemble began with two mirrors, the first Lalanne created in this form, before expanding over a decade to fifteen. Executed by hand in gilt bronze, galvanized copper, and mirrored glass, each framed in electroplated leaves drawn from the artist’s own garden, it established the mirror as a Lalanne hallmark. Terry de Gunzburg, who first encountered the mirrors during her years as Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, acquired the ensemble at the three-day YSL collection sale in 2009. The two original mirrors were included in an early presentation devoted to Les Lalanne at the Centre National d’ Art Contemporain in 1975, and the ensemble later featured in the 2010 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
The result eclipses the previous benchmark for a Claude Lalanne mirror of £3.6 million ($4.8 million), achieved by Unique Structure Végétale Mirror and Wall Light at Sotheby’s London in September 2025 during the Pauline Karpidas: The London Collection Evening Auction, against an estimate of £350,000 to £450,000. Before that, Miroir, pièce unique had sold for €4.7 million ($4.6 million) at Sotheby’s Paris in 2023 during the Hydra: The Karpidas Collection auction, against an estimate of €380,000 to €580,000.
The Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg, Design Masters auction continued with works by Jean Royère, Alexandre Noll, André Groult, and others.
(Press Release)
