WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 I want to start this deep dive with a number, 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:09.099 21 ,905 ,000 euros. Which, depending on the exchange 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:11.199 rate, at that specific moment we were talking 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:13.900 about, hovered right around 31 million US dollars. 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:16.719 31 million dollars, yeah. And usually when we 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.059 talk about that kind of money, in the art world 00:00:19.059 --> 00:00:21.559 anyway, we are visualizing a massive canvas, 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:23.780 right? Like a Rothko or something. Exactly, like 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:25.859 a Rothko or a Picasso, something that completely 00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:29.760 dominates a gallery wall. But today we are talking 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.840 about a chair. And not a throne either. No. Not 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:36.359 some diamond encrusted golden seat built for 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.539 a monarch. It is just a small brown leather armchair. 00:00:39.700 --> 00:00:41.979 Just a chair. It is the dragon's armchair or 00:00:41.979 --> 00:00:44.880 the fauteuil o' dragons if we are being official. 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:46.920 Designed by the Irish architect and designer 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:50.000 Eileen Gray. Yes, Eileen Gray. And the fact that 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:51.899 a piece of furniture, something you literally 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:55.509 just sit on. shattered every single record for 00:00:55.509 --> 00:00:57.909 decorative art is exactly what we need to unpack 00:00:57.909 --> 00:01:00.630 today. Because it really is not just about inflation 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:03.109 or, you know, rich people throwing money around 00:01:03.109 --> 00:01:05.129 for the sake of it. Right. It is deeper than 00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:08.489 that. Much deeper. It is a perfect storm. It 00:01:08.489 --> 00:01:12.129 is this incredible story where craftsmanship 00:01:12.129 --> 00:01:15.969 and provenance and celebrity history and honestly, 00:01:16.150 --> 00:01:20.659 just. raw market psychology all collided. Collided 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:23.579 at Christie's in Paris back in 2009. Exactly. 00:01:23.819 --> 00:01:26.379 And that is the mission for this deep dive. We 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:28.599 have been going through all the sources, the 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:31.019 auction records, the biographies, the catalog 00:01:31.019 --> 00:01:32.959 descriptions. I love it. And we are going to 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:36.180 trace how this one specific object went from 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:40.159 a humid bathroom in 1919. Which is a crazy story 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.739 on its own. So crazy. From a bathroom to a $2 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:47.560 ,700 purchase in the 1970s. And finally, to that 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:50.519 absolute record -breaking $31 million moment. 00:01:50.739 --> 00:01:52.739 It really is the ultimate case study in value. 00:01:52.859 --> 00:01:54.739 It makes you ask what actually makes an object 00:01:54.739 --> 00:01:56.859 priceless. Right. Is it the hand of the maker 00:01:56.859 --> 00:01:58.760 or is it the hand of the owner? Or both. So let's 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:00.340 just start with the object itself. Because I 00:02:00.340 --> 00:02:02.659 think if you hear someone say $31 million chair, 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:05.140 you automatically picture something incredibly 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:08.000 garish. Oh, for sure. Gold leaf everywhere. Right, 00:02:08.020 --> 00:02:10.819 exactly. But looking at the images from the Christie's 00:02:10.819 --> 00:02:13.979 catalog, it is surprisingly contained. Contained 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:15.479 is a really good word for it. It is actually 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:17.659 quite small. Really? Yeah, the dimensions are 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:21.620 only 61 by 91 centimeters. Oh, wow. So it is 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:23.960 petite. It was never meant to be this massive 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:26.060 lounge chair you sink into to watch football. 00:02:26.259 --> 00:02:29.360 It is very much a sculptural object. So describe 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.300 it for us. For anyone listening who hasn't seen 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:33.080 the photos, what are we actually looking at here? 00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:35.520 Well, visually, it is striking, but it is quite 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:39.319 dark. It is an upholstered wooded armchair covered 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:42.599 in this rich brown leather. Okay. But the frame 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:45.699 is really where the genius lies. It is sculpted 00:02:45.699 --> 00:02:49.080 wood and it is lacquered in this brownish orange 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.639 and silver finish. Christie's actually described 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:56.259 the form of the chair as unfurling petals. Unfurling 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:58.780 petals. That is a very organic description for 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:00.639 a piece of furniture. It is, and it completely 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:03.240 fits. The armrests are not just straight rigid 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.759 lines. They are these serpentine intertwined 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:09.300 bodies that literally flow around the person 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:11.099 sitting in it. Which is where the name comes 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.400 from, right? The dragon's armchair. Exactly. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:16.300 Hence the name. But looking closely at the relief 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:19.699 work on those armrests. and the notes actually 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.900 mention this ambiguity, are they definitely dragon? 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:25.979 Well, that is up for debate. And honestly, I 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:27.539 think that adds to the mystique of the whole 00:03:27.539 --> 00:03:30.159 piece. How so? So the iconography is definitely 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.960 likened to traditional Chinese art. You have 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.719 these stylized clouds carved in low relief and 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:38.139 the general dragon motif. Right, the scales and 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:40.539 everything. Yeah, but the way the armrests flow 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:44.599 and bulge. Some critics and art historians have 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:46.560 actually compared them to a sea monster instead. 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:49.280 A sea monster. That feels a little bit more dangerous, 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:51.139 doesn't it? It really does. It gives the chair 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.419 this intense sense of movement, like the chair 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:55.979 is alive and sort of wrapping around you. And 00:03:55.979 --> 00:03:57.939 that is slightly terrifying, but also amazing. 00:03:58.099 --> 00:04:00.759 And the eyes of these creatures. Whether they're 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.219 dragons or sea monsters, they're made of black 00:04:03.219 --> 00:04:05.719 lacquer set on a white ground. So they stand 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.259 out. Oh, they really pop against the darker wood 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:10.740 of the frame. It is absolutely not passive furniture. 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:13.379 It demands your attention. And the auction catalog 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:17.180 called it surprising, imaginative, subtly sculpted 00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:20.500 and crafted. Yes. That word subtly is doing a 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:23.060 lot of heavy lifting for a $30 million item. 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:26.560 You would think for that price it would be screaming 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.019 its value at you. Well, you have to remember 00:04:29.019 --> 00:04:32.560 that true luxury in that era, and specifically 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:35.600 in Eileen Gray's work, was very often about the 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:37.660 details you had to be standing right next to 00:04:37.660 --> 00:04:40.779 the piece to even see. Ah, okay. Jennifer Goff, 00:04:40.779 --> 00:04:42.360 who is the curator at the National Museum of 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.240 Ireland, she actually calls the piece completely 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.459 unique and rather eccentric. Eccentric is an 00:04:48.459 --> 00:04:51.230 interesting choice of words. It suggests... It 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:54.110 doesn't quite fit the standard Art Deco mold 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:56.689 that was popular at the time. It really doesn't. 00:04:56.689 --> 00:04:59.649 And that is largely because of when and how it 00:04:59.649 --> 00:05:02.889 was made. This was absolutely not a factory production 00:05:02.889 --> 00:05:05.230 piece. Not mass produced at all. Not even close. 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:07.670 Yeah. Which brings us to the actual process of 00:05:07.670 --> 00:05:09.470 making it. And I think this is the most critical 00:05:09.470 --> 00:05:11.550 part of understanding the intrinsic value here 00:05:11.550 --> 00:05:13.930 way before we even start talking about the market 00:05:13.930 --> 00:05:16.290 value. Right. Because the timeline is just shocking. 00:05:16.410 --> 00:05:18.209 She didn't just sketch this out on a napkin and 00:05:18.209 --> 00:05:20.870 send it off to a workshop to be built. No. Eileen 00:05:20.870 --> 00:05:23.149 Gray spent two full years working on this one 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:27.350 single chair. Two years. From 1917 to 1919. That 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:30.509 is literally the middle of World War I and its 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:33.910 immediate aftermath. Exactly. She is moving between 00:05:33.910 --> 00:05:36.529 London and Paris during these incredibly tumultuous 00:05:36.529 --> 00:05:39.310 historical years, and she is just obsessively 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:41.639 working on this one. piece of furniture. And 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:43.980 when we say working, we mean the physical application 00:05:43.980 --> 00:05:46.399 of the lacquer, right? Yes, the physical grueling 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:48.060 labor of it. Because I think people hear the 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:49.899 word lacquer and they automatically think of 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:51.680 a shiny spray paint you can grab at a hardware 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.060 store. Oh, totally. But that is not what we're 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:56.680 talking about here. Far from it. Traditional 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:59.579 Asian lacquer is a natural polymer derived from 00:05:59.579 --> 00:06:03.060 tree sap. Tree sap. Yeah. And it is highly toxic 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:06.620 before it cures. It can cause terrible skin rashes 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:09.579 that are very similar to severe poison ivy. Oh, 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:13.199 wow. And on top of being toxic, it is incredibly 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.319 temperamental to work with. It requires layer 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:17.319 upon layer upon layer. How many layers are we 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:19.139 talking about? Sometimes dozens. You have to 00:06:19.139 --> 00:06:21.579 apply a paper thin coat, let it cure, polish 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:23.639 it completely down, apply another thin coat. 00:06:23.740 --> 00:06:25.540 It takes weeks, sometimes months, just to build 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.579 up that deep, lustrous finish. And the curing 00:06:28.579 --> 00:06:31.300 conditions are super specific. This is where 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:33.740 that famous anecdote comes in. Yes, my favorite 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:38.139 part of the story. Lacquer doesn't dry by evaporation 00:06:38.139 --> 00:06:41.500 like normal paint. It actually sets through a 00:06:41.500 --> 00:06:44.100 chemical process that strictly requires high 00:06:44.100 --> 00:06:48.180 humidity. Okay. So where did Eileen Gray, this 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:51.259 aristocratic, elegant designer, find a highly 00:06:51.259 --> 00:06:53.920 humid environment in her early 20th century home? 00:06:54.139 --> 00:06:56.779 Her bathroom. Her bathroom. The sources literally 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:59.740 describe her checking the piece in the steam 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:02.680 of her bathroom. polishing it by hand for days 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:05.639 on end. That image is just fantastic. It completely 00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:08.120 strips away all the glamour we associate with 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.459 high -end design. It really does. It is not some 00:07:10.459 --> 00:07:13.980 pristine, sunlit studio. It is a working artist 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:16.660 utilizing her own domestic space just to achieve 00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:19.240 a chemical reaction on a piece of wood. And it 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:21.480 creates this incredible intimacy with the object. 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.180 When you buy this chair, you are not just buying 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:26.579 a cool design. You're buying the literal years 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:29.600 of her life spent inhaling those fumes in a damp 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.300 bathroom. polishing that surface, obsessing over 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.459 the exact curve of the dragon's body. Or the 00:07:34.459 --> 00:07:36.439 sea monster's body. Right, exactly. It represents 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:39.139 a very specific era of her career too, doesn't 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:41.160 it? Because she eventually became super famous 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:44.480 for very distinct modernist architecture. Yes, 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:46.240 the glass and steel stuff. Oh, right, like the 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:50.639 famous E -2027 house. But this chair feels so 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:53.860 much older, so much more traditional. It is really 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:57.060 the pinnacle of her first phase. It is highly 00:07:57.060 --> 00:08:00.939 expressive, very symbolic. almost mystical in 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:04.050 a way. Christie's catalog notes that it distills 00:08:04.050 --> 00:08:06.569 the magical, intimately expressive phase of her 00:08:06.569 --> 00:08:08.990 work before she shifted toward the functional 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:11.290 industrial modernism she is mostly known for 00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:14.009 today. So it is a super rare artifact of early 00:08:14.009 --> 00:08:16.870 gray. Exactly. A transitional masterpiece. OK, 00:08:16.930 --> 00:08:19.350 so we have this rare, labor -intensive masterpiece 00:08:19.350 --> 00:08:22.889 created in a steamy bathroom. But a masterpiece 00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:25.410 sitting in a bathroom doesn't magically get a 00:08:25.410 --> 00:08:28.370 $31 million price tag slapped on it. No, it definitely 00:08:28.370 --> 00:08:30.550 does not. We need to talk about the journey this 00:08:30.550 --> 00:08:33.179 chair took. The provenance. Provenance is the 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:35.460 golden ticket in the art world. It is all about 00:08:35.460 --> 00:08:37.580 who bought it and where was it seen by other 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:40.059 wealthy people. Right. And the very first owner 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:42.200 of the dragon's armchair was Suzanne Talbot. 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:44.519 She was a patron of Gray's Rite. A very, very 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:46.899 significant one. Her real name was Madame Matthew 00:08:46.899 --> 00:08:50.139 Levy, but she went by Suzanne Talbot. She was 00:08:50.139 --> 00:08:52.779 a milliner, so a high -end hat maker, and just 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:55.899 a major, major figure in Paris fashion at the 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:59.259 time. Okay, so she had money and taste. Tons 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:01.990 of both. She actually commissioned Eileen Gray 00:09:01.990 --> 00:09:04.529 to design the entire interior of her apartment. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:08.120 which became known as the famous Glass Salon. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.120 The Glass Salon. Even the name just sounds incredibly 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:13.840 expensive. It was a total landmark of interior 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.899 design in Paris. So the chair starts its life 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:19.440 at the very, very top of the social ladder. It 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.940 is a bespoke commission. It's placed in a famous 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:24.440 avant -garde salon. It gets photographed for 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:26.700 magazines. It has a serious pedigree from day 00:09:26.700 --> 00:09:28.940 one. Exactly. But then, as always happens with 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:30.799 fashion, tastes change, Art Deco falls out of 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:32.399 favor, and the chair just sort of disappears 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:34.179 from the public consciousness for a while. He 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:37.360 goes dormant. basically until 1971. This is a 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:39.960 massive pivot point in the story. 1971. So we 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:42.460 are deep in the era of psychedelia, plastic furniture, 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.419 whole space age aesthetic. Shag carpets everywhere. 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:47.960 Exactly. Art deco at that point is basically 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:50.240 considered grandma's furniture by a lot of the 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.620 mainstream culture. It was totally out of fashion. 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:56.139 And that is exactly when the Parisian art dealer, 00:09:56.340 --> 00:09:58.740 Cesca Valois, comes into the picture. Jessica 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.120 Valois. Yes, she finds and acquires the chair. 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:03.940 And the price she paid is just fascinating, given 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:06.039 what we know happens later. The auction records 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:11.500 say she paid $2 ,700. $2 ,700. I mean, I know 00:10:11.500 --> 00:10:13.299 inflation is a real thing, but even adjusted 00:10:13.299 --> 00:10:15.860 for inflation, that is roughly the price of a 00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:19.080 decent used Honda Civic today. Right. It is absolutely 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.700 not the price of a museum -grade masterpiece. 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:24.460 It just shows that the market had not caught 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:27.820 up to the history yet. The scholarship on Eileen 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:31.299 Gray simply wasn't what it is today. To the average 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:34.259 eye walking past a shop in 1971, it was just 00:10:34.259 --> 00:10:37.299 this weird, heavy old brown chair. But Jessica 00:10:37.299 --> 00:10:39.460 Valloy clearly saw something else. She had the 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:42.019 eye. And more importantly, she knew exactly who 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:44.799 else would see something in it. Oh, yes. She 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:46.759 held on to it for a bit and then sold it two 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:50.279 years later in 1973. And the buyer was Yves Saint 00:10:50.279 --> 00:10:52.710 Laurent. Wow. Okay, this is where the rocket 00:10:52.710 --> 00:10:55.269 fuel gets added to the fire. It cannot be overstated 00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:57.549 how big a deal this is. Yeah. Yves Saint Laurent 00:10:57.549 --> 00:11:00.490 and his partner Pierre Berger were not just rich 00:11:00.490 --> 00:11:03.049 guys buying expensive things. Right. They were 00:11:03.049 --> 00:11:06.419 tastemakers of the highest possible order. Their 00:11:06.419 --> 00:11:09.299 private art collection was legendary, even while 00:11:09.299 --> 00:11:11.259 they were still actively building it. It is that 00:11:11.259 --> 00:11:13.659 classic halo effect. If Yves Saint Laurent, the 00:11:13.659 --> 00:11:16.379 king of fashion, decides to put this weird brown 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.480 chair in his living room, it is no longer just 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:22.679 an old Eileen Gray chair. No. It becomes the 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:25.720 chair that YSL personally chose. Precisely. His 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:28.360 ownership actively validates the object to the 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:31.240 rest of the world. It tells high society this 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:34.700 object is historically significant. And for nearly 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:37.259 40 years, that chair just sat in their private 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.600 collection. Wow. It was part of the daily backdrop 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.039 of their lives. It absorbed all the glamour and 00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:43.940 the mythos of that household. Okay, so let us 00:11:43.940 --> 00:11:46.879 fast forward. It is February 2009. Yves Saint 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.100 Laurent has sadly passed away. Pierre Bergé decides 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:51.740 he is selling the collection. The whole thing. 00:11:51.820 --> 00:11:53.639 And it gets dubbed the sale of the century by 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:56.000 the press. Which is a bold claim, but it actually 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.059 lived up to it. And you have to remember the 00:11:58.059 --> 00:12:01.139 global context here. This is February 2009. Oh, 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:03.649 right. The global financial markets had literally 00:12:03.649 --> 00:12:07.470 just melted down in late 2008. The entire world 00:12:07.470 --> 00:12:10.169 was plunging into a severe recession. Lehman 00:12:10.169 --> 00:12:12.169 Brothers had collapsed. People were losing their 00:12:12.169 --> 00:12:14.470 homes. You would naturally think this is the 00:12:14.470 --> 00:12:17.809 absolute worst possible time in history to sell 00:12:17.809 --> 00:12:20.470 luxury decorative assets. People were panicking. 00:12:20.590 --> 00:12:22.909 Exactly. Yeah. But in the ultra high end art 00:12:22.909 --> 00:12:26.230 world. Sometimes extreme economic uncertainty 00:12:26.230 --> 00:12:29.149 actually drives people toward tangible physical 00:12:29.149 --> 00:12:32.090 assets. Oh, that makes sense. Like gold. Exactly 00:12:32.090 --> 00:12:34.570 like gold. High quality proven art becomes a 00:12:34.570 --> 00:12:36.769 safe harbor for billionaires to park their wealth. 00:12:36.850 --> 00:12:40.090 And the hype around this specific YSL sale was 00:12:40.090 --> 00:12:42.690 just deafening. Where was it held? It was held 00:12:42.690 --> 00:12:44.789 at the Grand Palais in Paris. It wasn't just 00:12:44.789 --> 00:12:46.990 a standard auction in a quiet room. It was a 00:12:46.990 --> 00:12:49.419 massive cultural event. So the Dragon's Chair 00:12:49.419 --> 00:12:52.320 comes up for auction. Now, the experts at Christie's 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:54.440 are not flying blind here. They know it has the 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:56.740 YSL provenance. They know it is an Eileen Gray 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:59.440 original. What was their official pre -sale estimate? 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:02.139 They estimated it would sell for between 2 and 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:05.340 3 million euros. Which is a very... Solid estimate. 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:07.820 I mean, that is a lot of money for a chair. It 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:10.019 clearly acknowledges that it is a masterpiece. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:12.559 It definitely acknowledges Gray's importance 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:15.480 and the YSL history. Yes. Two to three million 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:18.539 is huge. But once the actual bidding opened, 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:22.720 that estimate became completely irrelevant almost 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:25.120 immediately. So describe the room for us. What 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.539 actually happens in an auction room when a lot 00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:29.700 like this just takes off? It basically becomes 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:32.299 a duel. The auctioneer starts the bidding and 00:13:32.299 --> 00:13:35.179 the numbers just start. aggressively ticking 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:38.440 up. 4 million, 5 million, 10 million. My God. 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.179 At that point, the room usually goes dead silent, 00:13:41.259 --> 00:13:43.620 but there is this thick electric tension in the 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:45.580 air. People are whispering on cell phones. Yeah. 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.639 You have to realize 10 million would have already 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:50.159 been a massive world record. But it didn't stop 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.080 there. It kept going. It just kept climbing. 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:55.259 15 million, 20 million. And finally, the hammer 00:13:55.259 --> 00:13:59.940 falls. 21 million, 905 ,000 euros. Shattering 00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:02.440 the previous world record for 20th century decorative 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:06.259 art by 22 million dollars. That is insane. It 00:14:06.259 --> 00:14:08.419 didn't just break the record. It completely obliterated 00:14:08.419 --> 00:14:10.919 it. That is the literal definition of an outlier 00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:13.279 in the market. So who bought it? Who actually 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.440 has that kind of liquid capital and that kind 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:19.860 of intense desire for a brown armchair? This 00:14:19.860 --> 00:14:21.759 is honestly the greatest twist of the whole story. 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:26.029 The winning buyer was Chesca Valois. Wait. the 00:14:26.029 --> 00:14:29.879 exact same art dealer who bought it for $2 ,700 00:14:29.879 --> 00:14:33.980 back in 1971. The very same woman. You are kidding. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:37.120 No. Now, she was bidding on behalf of an unknown 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:39.600 third -party client. There were a lot of rumors 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:41.779 flying around that it was the billionaire Kravis 00:14:41.779 --> 00:14:43.620 family, though, that has been heavily debated 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:46.500 and denied. But physically, she was the one sitting 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:48.259 in the room holding the battle. Just imagine 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:50.679 that feeling. She physically held this exact 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:53.659 object in her hands in the 70s, bought it for 00:14:53.659 --> 00:14:56.220 the price of a used car, sold it to Yves Saint 00:14:56.220 --> 00:14:58.659 Laurent, watched it become... this total legend 00:14:58.659 --> 00:15:01.139 and then stood in the Grand Palais 40 years later 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:03.779 to buy it back at a 10 ,000 -fold markup. It 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:07.279 closes the historical circle so perfectly. And 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.940 her comment to the press right after the sale 00:15:09.940 --> 00:15:12.559 is really the key to understanding this entire 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:15.860 deep dive. What did she say? When reporters swarmed 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:17.759 her and asked about the insane price, because 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:20.019 the whole world was asking why this amount of 00:15:20.019 --> 00:15:22.320 money, she simply called it the price of desire. 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:24.899 The price of desire? That honestly feels more 00:15:24.899 --> 00:15:27.759 like a philosophy than economics. totally is. 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:30.919 It essentially admits that at this stratospheric 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:34.059 level of wealth, We are no longer talking about 00:15:34.059 --> 00:15:36.440 the cost of materials. We're not talking about 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:38.340 labor hours. We aren't even really talking about 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:40.620 rational financial investment anymore. Right. 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:42.940 We are talking about the completely irrational, 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:46.360 overwhelming human need to possess something 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:49.039 utterly unique. It is the intersection of two 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:52.039 very distinct types of desire, really. You have 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:54.460 the original desire of Eileen Gray obsessing 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:56.519 over this wood in her steamy bathroom for two 00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:58.899 years, pouring her actual soul and lungs into 00:15:58.899 --> 00:16:00.860 it. Yes. And then you have the desire of the 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:02.830 billionaire collector. who desperately wants 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:05.330 to own a piece of that artistic soul plus the 00:16:05.330 --> 00:16:07.889 glamorous soul of Yves Saint Laurent. Exactly. 00:16:08.070 --> 00:16:11.389 You are literally buying the narrative. You are 00:16:11.389 --> 00:16:14.750 buying the story of the 20th century. From the 00:16:14.750 --> 00:16:17.490 obscure artisan working in a bathroom to the 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:20.549 fabulous fashion icon in his Paris salon to the 00:16:20.549 --> 00:16:22.850 sheer adrenaline of the auction house world record. 00:16:23.110 --> 00:16:25.870 The physical chair is really just the vessel 00:16:25.870 --> 00:16:28.149 for all that intangible history. It really makes 00:16:28.149 --> 00:16:29.850 you wonder about the core distinction between 00:16:29.850 --> 00:16:32.529 furniture and art. I mean, structurally, you 00:16:32.529 --> 00:16:34.490 can sit in it. It functions perfectly well as 00:16:34.490 --> 00:16:37.490 a chair. Sure. But at $31 million, you wouldn't 00:16:37.490 --> 00:16:40.070 dare actually sit in it, right? Well, that is 00:16:40.070 --> 00:16:43.070 the grand irony of it all. Eileen Gray fully 00:16:43.070 --> 00:16:45.769 intended for her pieces to be used. She strongly 00:16:45.769 --> 00:16:48.509 believed in design that served daily life. Right. 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.570 But the global art market has essentially transformed 00:16:51.570 --> 00:16:55.090 her functional chair into a holy relic. It has 00:16:55.090 --> 00:16:56.970 completely transcended its original physical 00:16:56.970 --> 00:17:00.269 function to become pure stored capital and pure 00:17:00.269 --> 00:17:02.809 social status. It is a little bit tragic in a 00:17:02.809 --> 00:17:04.769 way. It is simply too expensive to ever just 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:07.029 be a chair again. That is often the fate of the 00:17:07.029 --> 00:17:10.109 masterpiece. It gains historical immortality, 00:17:10.109 --> 00:17:12.529 but it loses its everyday purpose. So let us 00:17:12.529 --> 00:17:15.369 wrap this up. We have gone from the toxic humidity 00:17:15.369 --> 00:17:20.190 of 1919 to the financial frenzy of 2009. We have 00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:24.869 seen how $2 ,700 magically turned into $31 million. 00:17:25.289 --> 00:17:28.250 And we have seen that financial value is highly 00:17:28.250 --> 00:17:31.470 subjective, it is fluid, and it is almost entirely 00:17:31.470 --> 00:17:34.289 dependent on the stories we as a society attach 00:17:34.289 --> 00:17:37.269 to objects. Which leaves me with a final thought 00:17:37.269 --> 00:17:38.990 I want to throw out to you listening right now. 00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:41.500 We look at this Eileen Gray chair today and it 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:43.500 seems incredibly obvious that it is a masterpiece. 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:46.000 Of course. It has the rich history. It has the 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:48.160 unique look. It has the massive price tag to 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:51.059 prove it. But back in 1971, it was just sitting 00:17:51.059 --> 00:17:52.900 there. It was just available. It was completely 00:17:52.900 --> 00:17:54.859 overlooked. It was essentially waiting for the 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:56.599 rest of the world to catch up to its brilliance. 00:17:56.759 --> 00:17:59.599 So as you go about your week. Just look around. 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:02.000 Look at the seemingly mundane objects in your 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:04.559 own life or the weird things sitting in the dusty 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:07.480 antique shops you walk past. We always tend to 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:09.279 think history is finished right. Right, that 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.619 all the great stuff is already in museums. Exactly, 00:18:11.779 --> 00:18:13.940 that all the masterpieces have been identified 00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:17.380 and locked away behind glass. But history is... 00:18:17.609 --> 00:18:19.670 actively being written right now. Precisely. 00:18:19.670 --> 00:18:22.170 If a small brown eccentric chair can suddenly 00:18:22.170 --> 00:18:25.390 hold the price of desire simply because of whose 00:18:25.390 --> 00:18:27.630 hands created it and whose living room it sat 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:31.250 in, what misunderstood eccentric overlooked object 00:18:31.250 --> 00:18:33.990 exists out there right now, that will be the 00:18:33.990 --> 00:18:38.519 $30 million hammer drop of the year 2109. That 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:40.819 really is the question. What priceless artifacts 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:43.819 are we casually sitting on right now? I am definitely 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:45.420 going to go check the manufacturing stamp on 00:18:45.420 --> 00:18:47.240 my office chair as soon as we finish, just in 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:49.339 case. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive 00:18:49.339 --> 00:18:52.539 into the 28 million euro chair. An absolute pleasure 00:18:52.539 --> 00:18:54.640 to explore it. Catch you on the next deep dive.