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26 March
Belfond Collection: second sale
Nearly a year after the sale of writers' drawings from the Franca and Pierre Belfond collection, Artcurial recreated its
success story. In February 2012, this sale totalled €1.5 M, garnering six world records on the way, with eighteen
works bought by museums. The collection certainly provided a choice selection, ranging from a landscape with
nude female figures by Paul Eluard (€10,800) to an ink drawing by Arthur Rimbaud (€285,600). On 26 March, the
Paris auction house will be presenting the works of artists who in some way contributed to the celebrated "Cahiers
du Regard" published by Belfond in the late Seventies. This new sale will contain 90 lots: paintings and works on
paper collected by the Belfonds for the publication of the famous "Cahiers", when the publisher left Rue Guisarde
for 10 Rue du Regard. Max Ernst was asked to illustrate the first volume, "Le Rire des poètes" by Henri Parisot.
The collection features 66 cuivres rayés estimated at €35,000/40,000. Then come Dali, Matta and Bellmer (several
works, including a delightful watercolour, "La Toupie", from 1952 at €40,000/60,000) in a series of volumes confronting
the writer with the artist. In 1975, Belfond published Francis Picabia's romanticised autobiography, "Caravansérail".
The Belfonds collected no fewer
than seven of his works, including "Je
vous attends", a painting from his last
period where Picabia returned to
Abstraction (see photo). Part of the
former Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia collection,
this was exhibited and published
several times, notably during the 1976
retrospective at the Grand Palais. Also
worth noting: his "Mécanique" from
1916, the year of Dada's birth
(€50,000/100,000). Other jewels in the
collection include a watercolour by
Kandinsky, "White on Black"
(€100,000/150,000), and a painting
by Jean Dubuffet, "Topographie au
sol" (€70,000-100,000).
Stéphanie Perris-Delmas
Francis Picabia (1879 - 1953), "Je vous attends",
1948, oil on hardboard; signed on the bottom left,
99.30 x 80.30 cm. Estimate: €250,000/350,000.
HD
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