Bugatti's Moment

It wasn't the most expensive lot of the evening. It didn't even qualify as one of the top ten lots sold by price — that list was dominated, almost completely, by Willem de Kooning and Wayne Thiebaud. But Carlo Bugatti's Double-Sided Desk was one of the lots that drew gasps and murmurs at last night's sale of selections from Allan Stone's collection at Christie's in New York. The desk, decorated with pewter inlay and repoussé copper, was expected to fetch $100,000 - $150,000, but interest quickly doubled the high end of that estimate. As bidding reached $800,000, Philippe Ségalot, a private dealer, jumped in. He eventually beat out the other bidders, taking the desk for $1.55 million (including buyer's premium). That's more than an 11-fold increase on the designer's previous auction record, set just one year ago at Christie's when a Bugatti chair got $132,000. Ségalot bought the desk on behalf of a client. "I thought it was an exceptional piece of furniture for Bugatti, and apparently I was not the only one to think so," he said.

Photo Credit: Christie's Images Ltd. 2007