Christie’s Paris has sold the collection of Jeanne-Marie de Broglie for €4.081 million, twice its pre-sale estimate, with every lot finding a buyer. Bidders from 44 countries took part, turning a collection closely associated with one of Christie’s important European figures into a strong cross-category result.
De Broglie helped establish Christie’s presence in France and became known for a collecting life that moved easily between modern art, design, jewellery and historic luxury objects. The sale’s breadth reflects that personality, with works by Jean Dubuffet sitting beside Diego Giacometti furniture, Fabergé, Cartier and Boivin jewellery.
A unique Diego Giacometti table led the collection
The highest price was €832,000 for a Berceau coffee table designed by Diego Giacometti specifically for Jeanne-Marie de Broglie. The unique piece incorporated the image of her dog Séraphine, giving it a personal commission history that could not be replicated by another example of the same designer’s work.
That kind of direct relationship between maker and collector often creates the strongest provenance. Buyers are not only acquiring a Giacometti object but a work whose design records a specific friendship and domestic context, making biography part of the object’s identity.
Dubuffet works reflected a long artistic friendship
De Broglie maintained a close friendship with Jean Dubuffet, and several of his works formed important parts of the auction. Jardin de blèche grignote reached €512,000 after competition between four bidders, while the 1958 Texturologie La physique du sol sold for €435,200, roughly double its high estimate.
The results show how personal collecting history can strengthen interest in familiar artists. Works acquired or kept through direct relationships often carry a different emotional and documentary weight from pieces assembled later through the secondary market.
Decorative art and jewellery performed strongly beside paintings
Claude Lalanne’s unique six-light Structure végétale chandelier sold for €358,400 after strong competition. An Edgar Degas work reached €166,400, a Dante Gabriel Rossetti preparatory study realised €204,800 and Léon Spilliaert’s Marine au coucher de soleil also sold for €166,400.
The collection’s small luxury objects attracted equal attention. A Fabergé nephrite-and-gold cigarette case sold for €15,360, while a Cartier black enamel, gold and diamond cigarette case brought the same sum, around ten times its estimate. A Cartier lapis lazuli, sapphire and diamond nécessaire reached €25,600.
A Maltese-cross brooch quadrupled its estimate
A diamond Maltese-cross brooch once owned by Princess Anna Maria Radziwill sold for €128,000, four times its estimate. A Boivin natural pearl, peridot and diamond necklace designed by Marie-Caroline de Brosses in 1981 brought €104,960, while an engraved topaz suite with Radziwill arms reached €51,200.
These results demonstrate the strength of jewellery with a clear personal history. Signed manufacture matters, but aristocratic provenance and long-term ownership can give relatively small objects a narrative intensity equal to much larger works of art.
The sale turned a private life into a portrait of Paris collecting
Jeanne-Marie de Broglie moved through a Paris where fashion, galleries, auction houses and artists overlapped closely. Her collection captures that environment because it was not organised around a rigid category; it reflects curiosity across fine art, design and personal luxury.
The 100 per cent sell-through rate suggests bidders responded to that coherence. Rather than buying isolated famous names, they were acquiring pieces connected by one collector’s life, relationships and taste, which is often what gives a single-owner auction its strongest identity.
