A set of bronze mirrors by French sculptor Claude Lalanne sold for $33.5 million with fees at Sotheby’s in New York yesterday, smashing multiple auction records in the process. The sale of Lalanne’s Ensemble of Fifteen Mirrors from 1974 is now the most expensive work by the artist sold at auction, and also marks the highest price ever achieved at auction for a work of design. It sold for more than double its high estimate of $15 million in a 10-minute bidding war between five collectors.
The ensemble of mirrors surpasses the previous record for Les Lalanne, which was set in December 2025 when Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique by Claude’s husband, François-Xavier Lalanne, sold for $31.4 million. While the two artists worked together in their distinct styles and rarely collaborated on a piece, they jointly presented their work under the moniker of Les Lalanne.
The set of leafy mirrors had been commissioned in 1974 by Yves Saint Laurent for his residence in Paris that he shared with his then-partner, the industrialist Pierre Bergé. The mirrors, 15 in total, were made by Lalanne by hand in gilt bronze, galvanized copper, and mirrored glass, with leaves modeled after those found in the artist’s garden. They were the first mirror works Lalanne ever created, which would become a cornerstone of her practice. At Sotheby’s, they were offered from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzberg, who had acquired them in 2009 at the legendary three-day sale organized by Bergé at the Grand Palais in Paris of the masterful collection he had amassed with Saint Laurent. The works have been exhibited at the Centre National d’Art Contemporain in 1975, as well as in the 2010 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
