Christie's achieves €12M as museums preempt masterpieces from the Veil-Picard Collection
Cécile Verdier, President ofChristie's France, Cécile Verdier and Auctioneer, adjudicating the pair of paintings by Hubert Robert, Un Artiste présente un portrait à Madame Geoffrin ; Le Déjeuner de Madame Geoffrin, sold for 2 439 000 € and preempted by the musée du Louvre © Christie's images Ltd 2026, Ana Buklovska.
PARIS.—
On March 24 and 25, Christie's presented three sales, including two prestigious collections, which together achieved a total of 11 961 451 €.
Chefs-d'œuvre de la collection Veil-Picard
A landmark collection comprising around thirty treasures of eighteenth‑century painting and drawing, the sale of the Masterpieces from the Veil-Picard Collection, awaited on the art market for several decades, totalled 9,433,135 €, far exceeding its high estimate. “The results achieved by the Veil-Picard Collection have offered a resounding recognition of the refinement and taste of Arthur Georges Veil-Picard,” commented Pierre Etienne, International Director in the Old Master Paintings department.
The sale prompted several bidding battles, with museums and collectors in attendance, offering a fitting tribute to Arthur Georges Veil-Picard, who assembled this unique collection guided solely by his love of drawing and painting and his taste for marvelous images. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Arthur Georges Veil-Picard's favoured artist, led the sale with L'Heureuse Famille, acquired for 2,866,000 €, surpassing its high estimate. The work is the subject of a loan request for the exhibition Fragonard, L'Enfant chéri de Grasse, which will be held in Grasse, at the Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard, from 19 June to 18 October 2026, with scientific curatorship by Carole Blumenfeld. La petite coquette, with her tilted face and mischievous eye, also captivated the room, achieving 1,016,000 €, nearly three times its estimate.
One of the other standout pieces in the sale was the pair of intimate interior scenes by Hubert Robert, Un Artiste présente un portrait à Madame Geoffrin; Le Déjeuner de Madame Geoffrin, which was acquired by the Louvre through preemption and sold for 2,439,000 €, tripling its estimate. Among the twenty or so drawings in the collection, four remarkable results deserve mention, particularly for an unpublished sheet by Antoine Watteau, Homme debout tenant une guitare sous le bras, which was acquired for 838,200 €. The delightful and very lively drawing by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, L'Académie particulière, depicting a painter and his model in the intimacy of the studio, exceeded its estimate fourfold and found a buyer at 622,300 €. Finally, in a more historical vein, the collection also included two exceptional pairs of drawings dated 1783, works by Jean-Michel Moreau illustrating the festivities held in honor of the birth of the Dauphin by the royal couple at the Hôtel de Ville and the Palais Royal. Both pairs were preempted by the Musée national du Château de Versailles and sold for 381,000 € and 254,000 € respectively.
Dessins Anciens et du XIXe siècle incluant une sélection de terres cuites
Christie's held its annual sale of works on paper today, coinciding with the opening of the Salon du Dessin, achieving a total of €1,287,653. The highlight of the auction was a preparatory sheet for a ceiling by François Boucher, depicting Venus displaying the apple of her triumph to the gods of Olympus, which sold for €127,000. Among the religious subjects, a scene representing The Baptism of Christ, executed by a Primaticcio‑influenced artist of the Fontainebleau School in the 16th century, and using red chalk and red‑chalk wash with great subtlety, reached €88,550 — more than five times its estimate. Attributed to Ludovico Carracci, a drawing of Mary Magdalene seated in an interior and arranging her hair also elicited strong enthusiasm from collectors, selling for €69,850 against an estimate of €15,000–20,000.
In the historical register, a View of the Place de la Concorde, with the Church of La Madeleine in the background by Pierre‑François‑Léonard Fontaine captivated admirers of the City of Light and its history, achieving €76,200.
La bibliothèque poétique de Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller
Christie's presented yesterday the fourth and final chapter of La bibliothèque poétique de Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, which totalled 1,240,663 €, above its estimate. Containing nearly one thousand works and assembled over more than half a century, it reflected the erudition and passion so characteristic of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller himself. Libraries and bibliophiles, fully aware of the importance of these treasures, were in attendance, paying fitting tribute to the Prince of Poets, two copies of whose Œuvres sold for 158,750 € and 111,760 € respectively. Collectors also turned their attention to sixteenth‑century women poets, most notably with a magnificent copy of the Œuvres of the poet Louise Labé, in a doublure binding and originating from the library of Charles Nodier, which sold for 133,350 €, doubling its initial estimate. A precious manuscript, a primary source for female poetic activity at the end of the sixteenth century, written by Marguerite de Bretagne, dame de Goulaine, was acquired for 53,340 € and preempted by the Municipal Library of Rennes.
Also noteworthy is another preemption, this time by the Library of Poitiers, of a copy of Eglogues et autres oeuvres poétiques by Jacques Béreau, printed by the Poitiers printer Noscereau in 1565, and acquired for 3,302 €.
