Record-Setting Mirrors Reflect a Collector’s Passion
A collection of mirrors created by one influential designer for another sold for a record price at a Sotheby’s auction of a single-owner collection.
A recent sale at Sotheby’s in New York was a landmark for the auction house and set a new record for design. The Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg—Design Matters auction on April 22, the first standalone single-owner design auction at Sotheby’s new Breuer building, featured 123 works from a high-profile collection. The pièce de resistance of their collection, and of the auction, was a group of 15 mirrors by Claude Lalanne for the Paris residence of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. The mirrors sold as a single lot for $33.5 million, the highest auction price for any work of design.
The de Gunzburgs furnished their home, which they described as “New York on the outside, Paris on the inside,” with the works of some of the most radical and influential French designers of the 20th century. In a press release, they said, “Collecting has been one of the great privileges of our lives” and stated they were “proud to share it now through our partnership with Sotheby’s, and hope it will continue to inspire new custodians, including our children, to follow their own paths of looking, learning, and collecting.”
The mirrors, which the de Gunzburgs purchased in 2009, were made over 10 years, from 1974 to 1985. Saint Laurent commissioned them directly from Claude Lalanne after she started collaborating with him, creating unusual electroplated accessories from molds of models’ arms and torsos. The mirrors have more conventional designs, with leaves and vines decorating their patinated bronze and galvanized copper frames, but their sculptural forms and naturalistic themes reflect Lalanne’s distinctive work. Saint Laurent initially requested two mirrors, but the collection grew over the years.
Image: Musée Yves Saint Laurent
For the de Gunzburgs, the mirrors, which Sotheby’s called “the most important mirrors outside Versailles,” had a personal element. Terry first encountered them while working with Saint Laurent. She spent fifteen years at his beauty brand. Perhaps she saw something of herself in Claude Lalanne. Like her, Terry de Gunzburg had an eye for design, and she, too, shared her artistic passion with her husband, although the de Gunzburg’s collaboration was in their collecting and the Lalannes (or “Les Lalanne,” as they were known professionally) were designers.
The $33.5 million sale price for the mirrors broke the previous design record, which was another Lalanne design from a significant collection that sold at Sotheby’s. The Hippopotame bar, a unique piece of figural furniture handmade by François-Xavier Lalanne, sold for $31.4 million at Sotheby’s Important Design, Featuring Works from the Schlumberger Collection in December 2025.
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