THOUSANDS of items from a historic luxury art nouveau Parisian hotel will go under the hammer next month.
The Lutetia, which has welcomed guests including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Gide and The Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, closed earlier this month for a three-year renovation programme.
And now, more than 3,000 items of furniture and decorative objects from the Left Bank hotel - as well as nearly 8,000 bottles of wines and spirits - are set to be auctioned between May 19 and 25.
Bidders will have a chance to take home interior decoration collections designed by the likes of Fernando and Humberto Campana, Guillaume Piechaud, Sonia Rykiel, Arman and Chen Man.
The items will be on display for public viewing over four days from May 15 throughout the hotel's lounges and reception halls, as well as in certain rooms and suites.
The auction itself will be held on site at the iconic luxury hotel.
While a vast portion of the hotel's collections are going on the auction block, the owners of the Lutetia nonetheless chose to preserve a selection of works by artists who have stayed in the hotel.
Their works will return to the Lutetia upon its reopening.
© AFP/Connexion
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