The sale features works by Picasso, Warhol, Magritte and Jeff Koons, alongside bespoke design pieces by French designer Claude Lalanne.
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Tiger-print carpets and surrealist icons have taken over Sotheby’s London galleries, where a huge collection of works owned by the late art patron Pauline Karpidas is about to go under the hammer.
The Manchester-born philanthropist, who died in 2022, was celebrated for her fearless taste and commitment to contemporary art. She divided her time between London and the Greek island of Hydra, filling her Hyde Park apartment with an eclectic mix of Picasso and Magritte, bespoke design by Claude Lalanne and commissions by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry.
Ahead of the three-day auction, taking palce from 17 to 19 September, Sotheby’s has recreated her London residence, complete with tiger-print carpets and mock-up views of Hyde Park.
"In staging this exhibition, we really wanted to bring Pauline's world to life. She lived in quite an extraordinary setting in her home overlooking Hyde Park and really our mission was to bring the collection to life in our galleries and follow really how Pauline herself had had the artworks displayed in her home," says George North, the auction house's head of collection sales.
Among the standout lots is René Magritte’s La Statue Volante, estimated at £9–12m, and Picasso’s Buste d’homme, valued up to £2.5m. Surrealism sits alongside whimsy in Claude Lalanne’s cabbage-on-chicken-legs sculpture Choupatte (£300,000–400,000), while Jeff Koons’ Poodle carries an estimate of £1.5m.
Design was central to Karpidas’ vision. Julia Fischel, Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art specialist, highlights the Lalanne owl bed specially commissioned for her Hyde Park apartment: “What is amazing about the Lalanne design in her home is that all of it was specially commissioned by her for the spaces."
"It’s this wonderful mixture of organic and surrealist bringing the outside into her home. And the particularly lovely detail of the owl on the bed looking over her whilst she slept … the owl is seen as being this sort of messenger from the dream world watching her whilst she sleeps.”
Her Mattia Bonetti bookcase is paired with Max Ernst’s Loplop présente, while Giorgio de Chirico’s Nudo carries an estimate of £600,000 to £800,000.
Pop art also features prominently. Andy Warhol’s 1984 The Scream, a reinterpretation of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece, is expected to sell for £2-3m.
"There are only five of them. One is in a museum collection, the other four are in private collections, including this one. So, it's a very rare opportunity to see a work like this at auction," explains Aleksandra Ziemiszewska, a contemporary art specialist at Sotheby’s.
The auctions will take place at Sotheby’s London on 17, 18 and 19 September.
