Achetez l’appartement d’Yves Saint-Laurent

« L’Appartement de M.Yves Saint Laurent: 7ieme, rue de Babylone, Paris, dans un immeuble ancien, accessible par une entrée privative, somptueux duplex de 520m² donnant sur un magnifique jardin privatif de 436m², plein sud sans vis à vis. Au 1er niveau très belle entrée, grand salon de 70m², salle à manger, salon de musique, une suite avec dressing et salle de bains, 3 chambres. Au 2ème niveau, vestibule avec un cabinet de curiosités, salon bibliothèque, une chambre avec dressing et salle de bains, une cuisine, pièces de service. Très beaux volumes » dit l’annonce.

…About 1929, or so the legend goes, a rich American began remodeling a duplex at 55 Rue de Babylone, in Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement. The last word in modernity, the garden-level residence featured streamlined brass radiators and sleek oak paneling. But, ruined by “le krach de Wall Street,” the American never moved in. Enter Marie Cuttoli, the spouse of a Radical Socialist Algerian senator. Determined to revive both the Algerian and French weaving industries, Mme. Cuttoli commissioned tapestries from her friends Picasso, Braque, Matisse, and Léger. Says Picasso biographer John Richardson, who visited Mme. Cuttoli at her picture-laden home, “The apartment was a kind of hallowed space, associated with modernism.”

In 1969 the apartment once again became available. Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, came to inspect the vacated property. The building’s somber façade and barren courtyard struck the 33-year-old couturier as “sinister,” Saint Laurent recalled. But then the heavy door swung open “and just in front of me there was a window overlooking the garden, and that was it”—a case of “love at first sight.”

The unexpected backyard vista included a private tennis court, owned by a neighbor, Baron Cochin. The beat of bouncing balls added civilized sound effects to this urban Eden.  After a two-year restoration project, the couple settled in. Saint Laurent occupied the larger bedroom on the main floor, while Bergé installed himself in a smaller one, on the garden level.

…The designer’s incredible collections of art, antiques, furniture, decorative objects and personal effects were recently auctioned off in a series of sales fetching a total of over $700 million. Now the legendary couturier’s Paris duplex on the Rue de Babylone, which housed many of his most prized possessions collected with longtime partner Pierre Bergé, is being put up for sale as well. The 5,400-sq.-ft. spread with a massive garden has been listed with prestigious Paris-based agency Emilie Garcin and is expected to fetch at least $30 million, WWD reports.