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| KLM Lockheed Electra L 188 Royal Dutch Airlines model, circa 1960 - 3000 - 4000 euros |
But, as the song says, one that would be “nothing, nothing without a woman to care”. French saleroom Artcurial will be appealing to our inner manliness, in a quintessentially Gallic way, next Tuesday (March 1 2011) with a testosterone-fuelled catalogue of b/w photographs, rare watches, jewellery and luggage – all designed to appeal to discerning men the world over.
Take Lot 18, for example, the 60cm x 45cm, silver print photograph of Alain Delon in the 1969 film Le Clan des Siciliens (300 – 500 euros). Eat your heart out Steve McQueen – you can practically smell the Gitanes just looking at the image online. Obviously, ahem, we fellows relate to him in a blokey, ‘I could scrub up like that if I wanted to’ way, I would add. Hastily.
You can live the super-cool, super-rich international man of pleasure lifestyle by proxy, just browsing the catalogue. In my pad I’d have a Jean-Pierre Fizet’s 85.50cm x 120cm nude study of Jane Birkin (800 – 1000 euros), I really would, and I’d never travel overnight without a vintage leather bag by Swaine Adeney (200 – 300 euros).
“L’addition, s’il vous plait!... merci.” Now where’s my Montegrappa Tourbillon pen (2500 – 3000 euros) so I can put that on my account... Over 300 desirable items are catalogued from Vuitton, Goyard, Rolex, Mont Blanc et al. The best of the very best.
You get the picture. I could go on – and have to be dragged off stage, crying, just like the Godfather of Soul – but, if you don’t have a serious yearning for anything in this catalogue, well, you should be ashamed.
Postcript: The only way I could work the ‘woman to care’ bit in would be to suggest she can dust all the clobber that you’ve just bought at auction. But I don’t think that’s terribly romantic, do you?
For further information, visit www.artcurial.com.
Text: Steve Wakefield
Photos: Artcurial
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