PARIS.- The two sessions dedicated to the Collection Zeineb et Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière: Grands collectionneurs et mécènes totaled €32,491,113/£25,443,791/$36,968,388 with 100% sold by lot and 100% sold by value. The painting by Francis Bacon was sold for €6,033,500/£4,724,834/$6,864,916 to a buyer on the phone.

François de Ricqlès, President of Christie's France: "We are particularly proud to have been entrusted to sell this stunning collection. International collectors and connoisseurs paid a last tribute to Zeineb and Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière’s exquisite taste by acquiring the 331 lots offered. The elegance and quality of each piece, from antiquities to contemporary artworks, attracted bidders from 26 countries from 5 continents, present in the room, on the Internet and especially on the phone with 1,606 registered bids. Christie’s France confirms its leadership in selling collections, following the successes of Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé in 2009 (€351.4M), Claude et Simone Dray in 2006 (€59.7M), Gourdon in 2011 (€44.6M) and Gaston Lévy in 2010 (€43.6M). The Marcie-Rivière Collection stands as the fifth most important collection sold in France in the last decade."

The contemporary art section realised €21,196,650 and some artworks broke new world auction records such as for L’ascension by Louis Soutter which sold for €265,500.

The beautiful Structure végétale chandelier by Claude Lalanne realised the second highest price for a work of art by the artist, behind the set of fifteen mirors which sold for €1,857,000 during the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale.

The classical section performed very well and totaled €11,294,463/£8,844,694/$12,850,840. The stunning Roman marble torso of a dancing satyr was sold for €2,897,500, a new auction world record for an antique torso; and the exceptional Pharaoh’s head was sold for €661,500.

The manuscript by Pierre Des Gouges coming from the Blancs-Manteaux monastery was preempted by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France for €2,750 (lot 48).

1,682 visitors came to admire the collection before the sale.