‘Art + Design from a private Belgian collection’ is the rather perfunctory name for a heavyweight auction being held by Parisian house Piasa this Wednesday. The extensive collection includes lots from a variety of 20th century design scene heavyweights, including homeware and furniture from the likes of Carl Auböck, Hans J Wegner, Finn Juhl, Pierre Chapo, Zaha Hadid, Fontana Arte, Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier (as well as a smattering of photography, artworks and textiles by Francesca Woodman, Andy Warhol, John Baldessari and Märta Måås-Fjetterström, among others)
The selection is, to put it lightly, broad; but a large percentage of the offering comes from Carl Auböck. Auböck – who was born in 1900 in Vienna and died in the city in 1957 – was a titan of Austrian modernism. A student of Johannes Itten at the Bauhaus, he took over his father Karl Heinrich's workshop after his death in 1925, producing a host of designs inspired by his time at the influential German design school.
Set of three baskets, 1950
His work – and thus, the auction catalogue – is marked by a predilection for warm wooden, brass and gold tones; his office and kitchen objects imbued with a surreal, playful nature (with occasional, subtle anthropomorphic flourishes, as seen in the dual bottle holders of lot 237). It's charming, faintly whimsical stuff – varied in scope (from bookends to opera spectacles, wine stoppers to lamps, knife sets to louche little sculptures) but all undeniably Auböck.
Estimated prices across the 462 lots span from the low hundreds, to the tens of thousands of Euros in the case of Warhol's 1968 Campbell's soup image. For the midcentury minded – the auction is also running in parallel with another sale of Scandinavian design for those really looking to empty their wallets – there's something for (almost) everyone.
A pair of 1950s bookends
Glasses, ice bucket, wine stopper and corkscrew, and coasters, all created in the 1950s
Left, safety pin, paper clip, glasses, and clipboard. Right, Modèle 4060, 1951
INFORMATION
The ‘Art + Design from a private Belgian collection’ auction will take place on 22 February at 7pm. For more information, visit the Piasa website
ADDRESS
Piasa
118 rue du Faubourg Saint-honoré
75008 Paris
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spotHeritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
Who are we buying? An anonymous art and design auction changes the game in Miami -
Ettore Sottsass’ designs go up for auction in Paris this autumn -
The legend of the Ritz: Artcurial Paris announces spring auction curated by Vincent Darré -
Piece corps: Wallpaper* and Sotheby’s join forces to reveal what great design is made of -
Material world: Sotheby’s announces autumn design auctionTaking place on 17 October, the sale features post-war and contemporary designs curated by Wallpaper* Editor-in-Chief Tony Chambers
-
Vincent Darré to auction off his marvellously surrealist design collection in Paris -
Luminaire auctions Campana brothers, Nendo and Marcel Wanders works (and more) in Miami -
Going, gone: the Four Seasons Restaurant’s sale of the century pips $4 million
