Sotheby’s will offer the collections of the late Decorative Art and Design dealer and gallerist Yves Gastou, through his apartment located in Paris, quai Malaquais, and his family mansion situated in Biarritz. Known for his eye and his curiosity, he brilliantly and boldly matched up Art Deco to Italian glassworks and designers’ creations from the 80s.
The selling of Yves Gastou’s collections will put forward his eclectic taste. In Paris, his apartment at quai Malaquais was filled with art and design from the 20th century, which he supported in his gallery. The plastic would shine, a mural expansion made of César’s resin neighboring columns in altuglas designed by Jean-Claude Farhi, and a gueridon from Shiro Kuramata made of plexiglass. Colours shined brightly, those from Ettore Sottsass’ glassworks, the lively red of a cabinet from François Cante-Pacos, or the blue indigo culbuto armchairs from Marc Held. Regarding Philippe Hiquily, the sculptor, the friend, he is surely well positioned, with a desk, lights, candelabra, and an impressive golden brass dining table.
To Biarritz, another place, another atmosphere. Yves Gastou chose as a second residence an eccentricity built during the reign of Napoleon III, on a request from a courtesan. This crenellated-roof house has a sweet name: “Ermitage de Douce-amie”. His lair reveals a hidden face of his personality. He was fascinated with religious artifacts, an accumulation of crucifix, rosaries, medallion portraits of martyrs, adorned the walls of the living room as well as those from the library. On the mesh doors of one of the libraries, by André Arbus, hang many exvoto, reliquary frames, silver crosses. The enfilade signed by Jean-Charles Moreux gathers chalices, pricket-sticks, an enamel plaque representing San Sebastian. The owner also adored bronzes from the 19th century: many artifacts of valiant knights reminisce his childhood in Carcassonne.
Amongst those warriors is a heroine: Jeanne d’Arc. Yves Gastou adored her. His interior is a cabinet of curiosity. The pebbles he picked up on the beach of Bidard pile up on a bronze chair designed by Sandro Chia, creating a sort of piece of art. What was this aesthete looking for through those diverse furniture and items from different style and era?
