Alberto Giacometti's Lucky Star

This non-specialist auction raised €935,671 including fees, a total that included this "Star" floor lamp by Alberto Giacometti, which at €241,800 doubled its estimate. Proportionally, an even more glittering success was achieved by his lamp base in this model, expected to fetch around €50,000, but finally sold for €167,400. Their provenance certainly helped these pieces, which are featured in the artist's catalogue raisonné and are referenced by the Giacometti Foundation: they have been kept until now by the descendants of a couple who ran a store specializing in lampshades and objets d'art, in Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, between 1950 and 1970.

François-Xavier Lalanne made an appearance with a brown patina bronze version of his Vache couchée (Cow Lying Down), a 2002 proof cast by Bocquel, which at €131,440 also largely topped its estimate (16 x 41.5 x 19.5 cm/6.3 x 16.3 x 7.7 in). Unsurprisingly, the "Roman" mirror created by Line Vautrin in c. 1955 fetched €37,200. Its frame is made of beige heat-embossed Talosel and its rod-shaped rays are inlaid with gold-silvered mirrors (diam. 20 cm/7.9 in). Meanwhile, the paintings turned up a surprise with the Presumed Portrait of Joséphine de Beauharnais, signed by Robert Jacques François Faust Lefèvre and dated Year VII—1798-1799­—, estimated at a mere €6,000 and sold for €28,710 (65.5 x 54 cm/25.8 x 21.3 in). A rival of Baron Gros and François Gérard, the artist, much favored by the imperial family, immortalized high society during the Consulate, the Empire and the Restoration.