More than 1,000 items belonging to late German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld will be auctioned for sale at the end of this year.
Items including his personal clothing, tableware and his cars will be sold at four different auction events this December by Sotheby’s, a New York City-based jewellery, art and collectables broker.
Lagerfeld died in February 2019 aged 85 following a career in fashion that spanned five decades.
As a tribute to the “genius” of the designer, Sotheby’s will sell items from his homes in France and Monaco as an “anthology of his personal taste” and his life and career.
Key items going on sale include a portrait of the designer by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Lagerfeld was famed for his signature image of platinum white hair, black sunglasses and fingerless gloves.
His huge love for his Birman cat, named Choupette, will also be central to the auction. Bowls from his home adorned with images of the feline will be listed for sale.
In an interview with CNBC in 2015, Lagerfeld said he “never thought that [he] could fall in love with an animal” as he had with Choupette.
“She’s over-groomed and everything. She has several maids. She’s never alone when I’m not there.
“Even if she sleeps, she doesn’t want to be alone. She’s like a chic lady, like a kept woman with her personal maid,” he said.
Three of the designer’s Rolls Royce cars, as well as his iconic leather fingerless gloves that he was regularly photographed in, will also be up for auction.
Additionally, a selection of designer suit jackets by Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Comme des Garçons and Maison Margiela will be listed for sale.
Lastly, there will be “an astonishing number of Goyard suitcases”, the auction house told The Guardian.
The auctions will take place in Monaco on 3,4 and 5 December and in Paris on 14 and 15 December. There will also be two online auction events, running from 26 November to 16 December.
During his vast fashion career, Lagerfeld worked as head designer for Chloé, Chanel and Fendi.
Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, described him as a “chameleon” who could adapt to whichever house he was working with.
“Nothing ‘defined his style’ because he was a chameleon who changed his colours according to the house for which he was designing,” Steele told the BBC.
“As he said once, he was Miss Chanel, Miss Fendi, Miss Chloé, (even, perhaps, Miss Lagerfeld) – with different styles for each,” she said.
