{"id":491137,"date":"2026-02-22T02:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T02:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:10:17","slug":"beauty-entrepreneur-terry-de-gunzburg-auctions-her-museum-worthy-collection-of-art-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491137\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty entrepreneur Terry de Gunzburg auctions her museum-worthy collection of art and design"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems unlikely that anyone else has ever acquired a Mark Rothko painting to match the trademark hue of their namesake company. But that\u2019s precisely how Terry de Gunzburg, founder of French make-up line By Terry, came to hang the Colour Field masterpiece \u201cUntitled (Black on Purple) 1969\u201d in her pied-\u00e0-terre on New York City\u2019s Upper East Side. \u201cThe signature colour of my brand is deep purple,\u201d says de Gunzburg in her lively French staccato. \u201cOur friend [gallerist] Dominique L\u00e9vy said, \u2018I have the perfect match.\u2019 And I replied, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s so chic, Dominique, to have a Rothko matching my packaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doors of the private elevator open to de Gunzburg\u2019s Parisian-proportioned apartment with its Left Bank chic. Ornate crown moulding, ceiling roses and parquet flooring frame a four-bedroom home, filled with the curves of art-deco furniture and the colour and energy of contemporary art by names more commonly found in a museum. Just one of the unexpected twists includes a steel Richard Serra piece, more usually found outside, leaning under the living-room windows. A neon-yellow abstract sculpture of a head by Georg Baselitz is mounted on a cabinet in the far corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AIn the living room: Alexander Calder mobile (est $5mn-$7mn); \u2018Concetto spaziale, Il cielo di Venezia\u2019 (1961), by Lucio Fontana (not for sale) over the fireplace; purple armchairs (c1931) by Jean-Michel Frank ($70,000-$100,000); abstract sculpture by Georg Baselitz (not for sale); gu\u00e9ridon (1939) by Marc du Plantier ($70,000-$100,000); sideboard (1933) by Eug\u00e8ne Printz ($300,000-$500,000); carpet (c1925) by \u00c9mile-Jacques Ruhlmann ($150,000-$200,000) \u00a9 2026 Calder Foundation, New York\/DACS, London \u00a9 2026 Lucio Fontana\/SIAE\/DACS \u00a9 Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS \/ \u00a9 Estate of Richard Serra \/ DACS <\/p>\n

Come spring, that violet, featheredged Rothko is to be auctioned by Sotheby\u2019s auction house; it\u2019s one of nearly 200 art and design pieces going under the hammer from the collection de Gunzburg has built with her husband, Jean. The first sale is Design Masters on April 22; the second is the Modern and Contemporary Art sale in May. The estimate for the Rothko alone is between $10mn and $15mn. Some 130 ceramics, lamps and furnishings by celebrated artists, designers and architects, including Zaha Hadid and Jean Roy\u00e8re, are together valued at between $30mn and $40mn. \u00a0<\/p>\n

De Gunzburg is a grande-dame of the beauty world. Born in Cairo, she was brought up in Paris, where she launched her eponymous brand in 1998. This was following an influential role as creative director of beauty at Yves Saint Laurent, where she invented the click-brush concealer Touche \u00c9clat. Her By Terry Baume de Rose lip balm is often pulled out of the make-up bags of famous faces. The company, headquartered in Paris, remains family-owned, with her husband and their eldest daughter, Marion Assuied, as shareholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TerryDe Gunzburg at her London home; her wardrobe comprises crisp white shirts and statement shoes \u00a9 Kasia Bobula<\/p>\n

\u201cThe art on these walls is not from lipsticks,\u201d de Gunzburg clarifies with disarming directness. Jean, a prominent molecular biologist, now the chief scientific officer of the French biopharmaceutical company Da Volterra, hails from a historic French family, and their marriage in 1994 took Terry\u2019s ability to collect to an elevated plane. The couple still has an endearingly newly-wed vibe, at once lightly teasing and complementary as they switch between French and English.<\/p>\n

We are more amateurs than collectors. We were never looking for \u2018acquisitions\u2019. With each piece, it was a coup de foudre<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more amateurs than collectors,\u201d Terry demurs. \u201cWe were never looking for \u2018acquisitions\u2019. With each piece, it was a coup de foudre.\u201d Mad passion, maybe, but there is no sense of a scattergun approach. She and Jean have amassed an extraordinary collection of Museum of Modern Art-calibre paintings and design. But she\u2019s quick to credit her London-based daughter Eloise Margoline, the family art adviser. With pedigree from Almine Rech gallery and Gagosian, Margoline has introduced her parents to 21st-century painters, including Anselm Reyle and Mark Grotjahn.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just as Terry\u2019s wardrobe is full of crisp white shirts and statement shoes, the apartment reflects an eclectic mix and match. A huge, ethereal white Alexander Calder mobile (est $5mn-$7mn) moves almost imperceptibly throughout my visit, hanging from the ceiling in the main living room. A Paul Dupr\u00e9-Lafon low coffee table, circa 1930 ($200,000-$300,000) skews art-deco industrial with its leather, parchment, oak and bronze. Pops of yellow and By Terry purple reign supreme.<\/p>\n

\"ADesk (c1931) by Eug\u00e8ne Printz (est $150,000-$200,000); \u2018Curule\u2019 stool (c1923) by Jules Leleu ($20,000-$30,000) \"Large\u2018Untitled (Black on Purple)\u2019 (1969) by Mark Rothko (est $10mn-$15mn); sculpture (c1950) by Alexandre Noll ($50,000-$70,000) \u00a9 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko ARS, NY and DACS, London \u00a9 2026 ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a compulsive buyer and I can never stop,\u201d says Terry. \u201cWe\u2019ve assembled this apartment piece by piece,\u201d\u00a0adds Jean. \u201cWe would go on weekends to art shows and antique shops we liked.\u201d A counterpart to the grandeur of the living and dining rooms, the de Gunzburgs\u2019 library is intimate. A pair of simple, mid-century Paul Dupr\u00e9-Lafon armchairs ($60,000-$80,000) is cocooned among floor-to-ceiling bookcases, stacks of Gagosian Quarterly, vases and vessels and an old-school television. Above the marble mantle hangs Picasso\u2019s \u201cBuste de femme\u201d ($3mn-$5mn). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Purchased in 2000, the apartment is among five properties the couple own; the others are in Paris (their primary base), London, Saint-R\u00e9my-de-Provence, in the south of France, and Herzliya, Tel Aviv. Each contains an equally knockout assemblage of objets d\u2019art. Manhattan holds a prime position in the family\u2019s life \u2014 a central hub of comings and goings for her seven children (two of whom live in the US) and 17 grandchildren. With a rotating cast of characters, it sometimes feels like a \u201chotel suite\u201d, Terry laughs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"In the library: \u2018Buste de femme\u2019 (1955) by Pablo Picasso (est $3mn-$5mn); screen (c1925) by Alexandre Noll ($30,000-$50,000); armchairs (c1946) by Paul Dupr\u00e9-Lafon ($60,000-$80,000); carpet (1940s) by Jean Lur\u00e7at for Myrbor ($7,000-$10,000) \u00a9 2026 Succession Picasso\/DACS, London<\/p>\n

That is no accident. Designed by fellow Frenchman Jacques Grange \u2014 known for the world\u2019s finest boutique interiors, from Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s Palazzo Margherita to the nearby, neo-deco Mark Hotel \u2014 the space channels a Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s meets Madison Avenue spirit. An enfilade of windows flood the two main rooms with sunlight. \u201cWhen we first opened the door to this apartment, we fell in love with the parquet Versailles,\u201d says Terry of the wood inspired by the Parisian palace. \u201cThe floors are like a piece of art itself.\u201d Paris inside, New York outside: the Upper East Side mid-rise, through-street view also had her smitten. \u201cI even love the noise of the traffic. It\u2019s incomparable New York energy,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grange insisted they start bold, with a carpet by early 20th-century French furniture designer \u00c9mile-Jacques Ruhlmann ($150,000-$200,000). A composition of radiant, interlocking bands of pinks and purple, it lends an unexpected, textured kick, setting the stage for the de Gunzburgs\u2019 time-spanning taste. Both love a quirky juxtaposition: a blue-chip Damien Hirst painting beside a blue Alberto Giacometti vase that once belonged to Karl Lagerfeld ($200,000-$300,000). \u201cIt\u2019s not a defined collection of a certain period or a certain type of art,\u201d says Jean. \u201cWe find works of great quality go together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"APainting by Beauford Delaney (not for sale); pair of wall sconces (1925) by Armand-Albert Rateau (est $100,000-$150,000); cabinet (1926) by Andr\u00e9 Groult ($600,000-$800,000); \u2018Footballeur\u2019 sculpture (1965) by Pablo Picasso ($20,000-$30,000) \u00a9 2026 Succession Picasso\/DACS, London\"AArmchairs (one of a pair, c1924) by Jean Dunand (est $150,000-$200,000); table (c1924) by Pierre Chareau ($120,000-$180,000); vases (c1925) by Jean Dunand (from $7,000); low coffee table (c1930) by Paul Dupr\u00e9-Lafon ($200,000-$300,000) <\/p>\n

Yes, \u201cit all began with the large Ruhlmann carpet in the living room\u201d, says Grange. But \u201cour friendship did the rest. For more than 25 years, every acquisition and every relocation of work was a conversation.\u201d In the dining room, for example, three extraordinary paintings of semi-nude male figures against a bright orange background fill an entire wall, visible through the set of living room doors from nearly every vantage point in the adjoining room. \u201cTerry called one evening to tell me they had just acquired a triptych by Francis Bacon,\u201d recalls Grange. \u201cI immediately reconsidered the entire space.\u201d <\/p>\n

He had just been offered an antique Saint-Gobain glass slab, designed a simple base for it, and paired it with woven-rush Ruhlmann chairs, to create a warm, urban-rustic ensemble.\u00a0The chairs and table are up for auction. The Bacon, however, is staying. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the architecture now,\u201d Terry explains. \u201cI think if you asked my husband to sell the Bacon, he would sell me. Keep the triptych or keep your wife?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But why auction hundreds of items from their home? \u201cI am 70,\u201d answers Terry. It\u2019s time, she says, \u201cto give our children the opportunity to build their own collections\u201d. Children shouldn\u2019t have to wait until their parents die to inherit everything, she says. Most of all, the couple plans to donate to philanthropic organisations, giving directly to grassroots charities \u2014 cultural, educational and science institutions \u2014 to have the greatest impact, says Terry.<\/p>\n

\"A\u2018Gartenfigur\u2019 (1932) by Paul Klee (est $2mn-$3mn); armchair (1920s) by Andr\u00e9 Groult ($25,000-$35,000); gu\u00e9ridon (c1914) by Andr\u00e9 Groult ($30,000-$50,000); vase (c1914) by Jean Dunand ($20,000-$30,000); floor lamp (c1937) by Eug\u00e8ne Printz ($50,000-$70,000); doors (1929) by Jean Dunand (not for sale) <\/p>\n

They also increasingly want spaces in their homes for kids to be kids. \u201cThe furniture is so fragile now. I hate to say to the grandchildren, \u2018Don\u2019t touch this\u2019,\u201d says Terry. \u201cEach time I would come back to the apartment, I found a disaster. I said, \u2018No way\u2019.\u201d Durability led the decision process in selecting what made it to auction; the more valuable and fragile an item, the easier it was to part with. She also wants more space to support emerging artists \u2014 \u201cI need walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The furniture is so fragile now. I hate to say to the grandchildren, \u2018Don\u2019t touch this\u2019<\/p>\n

While Sotheby\u2019s is certainly accustomed to estate sales following a death, those by living individuals are lively exceptions. Last year, the sale of patron Pauline Karpidas\u2019s cache of surrealist art and custom furniture garnered $136mn; over the years, high points have seen sales of the personal collections of Peter Brant, Stephanie Seymour, as well as Jacques Grange, in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jodi Pollack, chairman of 20th-century design and chairman of major collections, Americas for Sotheby\u2019s, is excited by this sale. In particular, she highlights a set of 15 hand-fabricated Claude Lalanne mirrors created for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berg\u00e9, which she describes as, \u201cwithout question, the triumph of the design collection. Not in my wildest dreams would I have dreamt of the opportunity to handle these, let alone see them reassembled within one room as they were originally conceived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Leon<\/a><\/p>\n

De Gunzburg bought the mirrors at the \u201clegendary\u201d auction of the couple\u2019s estate. But she admits that, \u201cbelieve it or not, we never found a place to hang them \u2014 never\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a clearout on an epic scale \u2014 time, not only, for her to move on, but for pieces to be showered in new affection. <\/p>\n

www.sothebys.com<\/p>\n

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