Karl Lagerfeld’s Sketches, iPods, and Gloves Return to Auction at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s is preparing to sell another chapter of Karl Lagerfeld’s afterlife. The auction house will offer about 1,000 previously unseen sketches from the designer’s estate in an online sale running July 2–8, 2026, alongside iPods, gloves, and other personal belongings. It is the sixth Lagerfeld estate auction Sotheby’s has organized since 2021, underscoring how durable the market for his possessions has become.
The drawings, some of which date to the 1970s, were kept by Lagerfeld until his death in 2019. According to Pierre Mothes, Sotheby’s France auctioneer and head of business development, Lagerfeld would sketch an idea directly and revise it repeatedly, moving with unusual speed because he was such a strong draftsman. The result is a body of work that feels less like polished presentation than working thought — immediate, restless, and precise.
The sale also reflects the breadth of Lagerfeld’s collecting habits. Sotheby’s is offering roughly 500 iPods, ranging from iPod Classics to iPod Minis, as well as some of his signature fingerless gloves and other personal items. The auction is being held without reserve, a format that can intensify competition when a name still carries the force of a brand.
That force has already been demonstrated. Sotheby’s first two estate sales, held in Monaco and Paris, brought in more than $18 million. Last year, the fifth auction, which included Lagerfeld’s illustrations, totaled €1.1 million ($12.5 million), about 10 times its high estimate. His real estate has also performed strongly: his Paris apartment sold for $10.8 million in 2024, and his villa in Louveciennes brought €4.7 million ($5.5 million) last year.
Lagerfeld’s continued market appeal speaks to more than nostalgia. His work helped define Chanel and Fendi, but his persona — exacting, theatrical, and instantly recognizable — has become part of the value itself. In that sense, Sotheby’s is not only selling objects. It is selling access to a designer whose mythology still commands attention across fashion, design, and collecting.
