Jacques Garcia, the interior designer responsible for renovating some rooms at the Palace of Versailles, will auction off rare and iconic pieces like a bed built for Emperor Napoleon and Empress Maria Luisa or a sofa and desk believed to have been used by Maria. Antoinette. . The auction will take place on May 16. and it will serve as a fund or foundation that the designer, who has no offspring, wants to create to protect his heritage.
In total, Sotheby’s Paris will auction 75 pieces, one for each year of life of Jacques García, who also owns the Sicilian Villa Elena palace from the second season of “The White Lotus.” In that fan there are authentic relics, writes The Guardian. Of two armchairs and a sofa commissioned for the private room of Marie Antoinette in the Palace of Fontainebleau; to a fireplace and desk used by the Queen.
The auction too the bed that would have been built for the wedding of Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Maria Luisa of Austria, in 1810, with a medallion depicting the couple in profile. The estimated value of the piece will be between 70,000 and 100,000 euros. A pair of Sèvres porcelain vases, valued at up to 1.2 million euros, and two cabinets that belonged to King William III and Queen Mary II of England will also be auctioned.
Jacques Garcia’s goal is to raise funds that will allow him to create “any type of fund or foundation” to ensure the future of the Châteay du Champ de Bataille, a Normandy palace that he bought 30 years ago in a very dilapidated state and which he sumptuously renovated and extravagantly decorated with 17th and 19th century art and furniture.
García believes that no one will notice that the 75 pieces are missing when they are removed, but admits that the decision — made because he has no successors and to preserve his inheritance — was not an easy one. “This place is like a love story to me. Each object was bought with my own money, often when money was already tight and finances were tight,” he says, quoted by The Guardian. The auction takes place on May 16.
Source: Observadora
