Yves Saint Laurent’s Lalanne Mirrors Sell for Record-Shattering $33.5 Million
Two gilt-bronze botanical mirrors by French sculptor Claude Lalanne, commissioned by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent beginning in 1974 for his Paris apartment, sold at Sotheby’s on April 22, 2026 for $33.5 million after a roughly 10-minute bidding war. The price far exceeded the $15 million high estimate and, according to Sotheby’s, set a new auction record for Lalanne and the highest price ever achieved for a work of design at auction. The mirrors came from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, who bought the ensemble at the 2009 Yves Saint Laurent sale for €1.9 million (then about $2.4 million). Sotheby’s dedicated sale of the de Gunzburg collection totaled $96 million, with additional lots including 16 works by Les Lalanne (Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne).
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This story was covered in Auction Fever, Museum Power Plays