Jeanne-Marie de Broglie: Princess who shaped the international art market

The founder of Christie's Paris office collected furniture that fetches vast sums today. This private collection, to be sold in Paris on September 30, reflects her knowledge of art and friendships forged with artists

Table basse 'Berceau', Diego Giacometti (1902-1985).

It is a tribute to the Parisian taste of Jeanne-Marie de Broglie that the furniture she collected in the 1970s and 1980s is of a type that makes vast sums of money in today’s market. Maybe the key is thinking outside the box. Princess Jeanne-Marie, the forward-looking daughter of a duke who established Christie’s Paris office in 1968, did not go for the fashion of the time. Instead, she followed the avant-garde.

Her private collection of over 150 lots, to be sold at Christie’s in Paris on September 30, reflects an expertise in art and friendships forged with artists. Close friends with gallery owner Daniel Cordier, she was active in a visionary artistic circle where she met and became friends with Jean Dubuffet. The work La physique du sol (€200,000-€300,000) from her collection forms part of Dubuffet’s Texturologies series developed from the late 1950s in which the artist uses a language of textures, layers and vibrations to transform painting into a physical and sensory experience.