This Sotheby's auction could mark the most valuable design sale of all time

Jean and Terry de Gunzburg sothebys — (Image credit: Annie Schlechter, courtesy Sotheby's)

Just when you thought design auctions couldn’t get any hotter, a just-announced sale taking place in New York this spring promises to raise the stakes even higher.

The global auction house Sotheby’s – fresh off the sale of a $31.4 million hippo-shaped bar designed by François-Xavier Lalanne – has announced that the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg will be hitting the block on 22 April, a landmark trove that's expected to achieve as much as $43 million, if not more.

The group of 123 works reads as a museum checklist of some of the best names in 20th-century design, one that's particularly heavy on French masters including Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, Jean-Michel Frank, Jean Royère and others.

‘The de Gunzburg Collection stands as one of the most significant and visionary assemblages of design ever to come to auction, representing the very pinnacle of French design,’ insisted Jodi Pollack, Sotheby’s chairman of 20th-century design in a press release.

The collection was drawn primarily from the de Gunzburgs’ New York apartment, which was decorated by renowned interior designer Jacques Granges in a style described as ‘New York on the outside, Paris on the inside.’

Terry de Gunzburg, a former medical student, built a make-up empire (she’s been described as the ‘Steve Jobs’ of the beauty industry and invented the legendary YSL Beauty product Touche Éclat). Her husband, Jean, meanwhile, is a distinguished molecular and cell biologist and a descendent of the noble Gunzburg family.

Over the years, and across five different houses, the couple has amassed a museum-worthy collection of art and design. 'I’m a compulsive buyer and I can never stop,' Terry told the Financial Times.

One of the auction’s numerous highlights is a group of 15 fantastical gilt-bronze mirrors designed by Claude Lalanne for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Paris home – an acquisition that was particularly personal to Terry, who worked for 15 years at YSL Beauty.

The Lalanne mirrors alone come with a high estimate of $15 million, but given their rarity and the white-hot market for all-things Les Lalannes, are likely to achieve much more. ‘These works mark the "magnum opus" of Claude Lalanne’s early artistic imagination and established a defining hallmark of her oeuvre,’ Pollack noted.

There are plenty of other design rarities up for grabs, many of which are expected to approximate the $1 million mark. There’s a charming shagreen-clad cabinet designed by André Groult in the 1920s, which could achieve $800,000; a pair of mahogany cabinets designed by Alexandre Noll in 1946 that come with a high estimate of $1 million; and a pair of delightful striped sideboards with ash, walnut, and ebony veneer designed by Jean Royère, also with a high estimate of $1 million. A separate auction will also see works by Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Agnes Martin, Paul Klee and others hit the block.

'Collecting has been one of the great privileges of our lives, a journey guided entirely by instinct, curiosity and the pleasure of living with works that moved us deeply,' the de Gunzburgs said in a joint statement. 'We are proud to share it now through our partnership with Sotheby’s, and hope it will continue to inspire new custodians, including our children, to follow their own paths of looking, learning and collecting.'

According to an interview in the Financial Times, the couple is using the sale as an opportunity to pass their fortune along to their seven children and more than one dozen grandchildren; they also plan to devote the proceeds to charitable causes.

The sale arrives at an unprecedented moment in the world of collectible design. Last December, Sotheby’s design week sales, held at its historic Marcel Breuer-designed headquarters in New York, brought in $60 million, a feat anchored by the sale of the Lalanne hippo bar.

‘As global demand for masterpiece-level design continues to intensify, this collection reflects a rare clarity of vision, conviction, and foresight,’ Pollack said. ‘It stands at the forefront of a new era in collecting, exemplifying how today’s most discerning collectors approach the pursuit of exceptional design.’

The Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg - Design Masters will go on sale at Sotheby's New York on 22 April, 2026

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Anna Fixsen is a Brooklyn-based editor and journalist with 13 years of experience reporting on architecture, design, and the way we live. Before joining the Wallpaper* team as the US Editor, she was the Deputy Digital Editor of ELLE DECOR, where she oversaw all aspects of the magazine’s digital footprint.