Claude Lalanne mirror ensemble sets $33.5 million auction record at Sotheby’s
A set of 15 bronze mirrors by French sculptor Claude Lalanne (1925–2019) has become the most expensive work of design ever sold at auction, after bringing $33.5 million with fees at Sotheby’s in New York on April 22, 2026. The result also established a new auction record for Lalanne herself, topping the previous high for any work associated with Les Lalanne.
The work, Ensemble of Fifteen Mirrors, dates to 1974 and was commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent for his Paris residence with Pierre Bergé. Made by hand in gilt bronze, galvanized copper, and mirrored glass, the mirrors were modeled on leaves from Lalanne’s garden. The ensemble was the artist’s first mirror work, and it would become one of the defining strands of her practice.
Sotheby’s said the lot drew five collectors in a 10-minute bidding war and sold for more than twice its $15 million high estimate. The result also overtook the previous Les Lalanne record, set in December 2025, when François-Xavier Lalanne’s Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique reached $31.4 million.
The mirrors carried a notable exhibition history as well. They were shown at the Centre National d’Art Contemporain in 1975 and later included in a 2010 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Before the sale, the ensemble belonged to Jean and Terry de Gunzberg, who acquired it in 2009 from the landmark three-day dispersal of Bergé’s collection at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The result underscores how firmly Les Lalanne now sits at the intersection of sculpture, design, and collecting — a category once treated as secondary, and now commanding blue-chip auction attention.
