A new house means a fresh start for the designer.
Living a life as creative and fabulous as that of Marc Jacobs, your home is likely to be full of beautiful things meant to inspire and delight. Sometimes, though, a fresh space requires a clean slate. The iconic designer and his husband, Char Defrancesco, purchased a place in Rye, New York earlier this year, and Jacobs decided it was time to let go of some of the treasures kept in their Manhattan townhouse; and go they will, in online and live Sotheby’s auctions being held this week.
“When you move into a Frank Lloyd Wright house, there isn’t a lot of wall space and you can’t hang a lot of paintings,” Jacobs explains in a catalogue for the covetable collection, when asked why he was putting his art, furniture, décor objects and jewellery up for bidding. “As much as I will have a difficult time parting with them, I just felt it’s time to give myself this window to start again.”
On the block at the Marc Jacobs: A Life of Design auction scheduled for December 12th are works from artists Elizabeth Peyton – you’ll recognize the portrait subject of ‘Sofia’ as a Marc Jacobs muse, director Sofia Coppola – as well as pieces by Ed Ruscha and Alberto Giacometti.
Objects like an opulent De Grisogono pear-shaped ring (the fruit, not the diamond – although it is covered in both coloured and white diamonds, of course), a gilt brass soap dish from the 1940s, and a luxe Eugene Printz sideboard are also up for grabs.
There’s an additional auction for another selection from Jacobs’ cache already online, which includes a vase by Memphis Group design pioneer Ettore Sottsass; prices in this grouping are decidedly more modest (with bids beginning at $50USD), meaning a piece of your favourite designer’s personal trove could actually be yours.
The Marc Jacobs: A life of Design collection is on view to the public, for free, until Wednesday, December 11th at the Sotheby’s New York location.