{"id":1470,"date":"2025-07-11T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1470\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:12:08","slug":"is-it-an-art-gallery-or-a-st-tropez-holiday-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1470\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it an art gallery or a St Tropez holiday villa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it an art gallery or a St Tropez holiday villa? <\/p>\n

, The Times<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a familiar-looking painting hanging above a staircase leading to the professional-grade chef\u2019s kitchen in the basement of the St Tropez holiday villa I\u2019m in. The painting features several evenly spaced circles of paint on a white background in a triangular frame. \u201cThat\u2019s not a Damien Hirst, is it?\u201d I ask Emilia Jedamska, the founder and chief executive of St Tropez House<\/a>, the villa rental company that oversees this home. \u201cYes, it\u2019s his D-Lysergic Acid,\u201d comes the reply. The painting, the chemical name of which is better known as LSD, sold at auction at Christie\u2019s in London for \u00a3361,250 in 2012<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On further inspection of the expansive modernist house, the Hirst turns out to be one of the cheapest of the artworks that fill Villa Ama<\/a>\u2019s seven bedrooms and extensive grounds. Opposite it sits a 2m-high Jeff Koons mirror-polished, stainless-steel ballerina sculpture. Above the breakfast table hangs a colourful work by Takashi Murakami and, in the garden, as well as a 17.5m heated swimming pool and outdoor cinema, there are monumental sculptures by the Austrian artist Franz West and the American artist Richard Serra.<\/p>\n

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Villa Ama allows guests to live alongside some of the most valuable art in the world<\/p>\n

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The heated outdoor pool at Villa Ama<\/p>\n

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A Richard Serra sculpture in Villa Ama\u2019s garden<\/p>\n

Art, Jedamska explains, is the villa owners\u2019 passion. \u201cThey want to live with it and share it with guests rather than have it stuck in some freeport somewhere.\u201d And in St Tropez\u2019s increasingly crowded and expensive villa rental market, the owners \u2014 who are descendants of the Asscher diamond family \u2014 hope the extensive art collection will help their villa to stand out. \u201cThe vision is not for a standard holiday rental with decorative things slapped on the walls,\u201d Jedamska says. \u201cIt\u2019s to allow guests to live with some of the most valuable art in the world.\u201d Their strategy is obviously working \u2014 in spite of it costing from \u20ac150,000 a week, the house is already almost booked up for summer. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts<\/a><\/p>\n

Brits are probably their biggest clients, Jedamska says, but their guests come from all corners of the world. \u201cWe have one Swiss client who has come for five years in a row, and immediately books next year when they check out,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d say 80 to 90 per cent are families with children, and it can often be three generations or groups of families. We once had three families from Brazil with nine children between them. We avoid groups of friends, and say no to celebrities bringing along DJs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A colourful work by Takashi Murakami in Villa Ama<\/p>\n

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One of Ugo Rondinone\u2019s vibrant ring paintings in Villa Brisas<\/p>\n

Villa Ama isn\u2019t alone in adorning its walls and garden with museum-grade art to stand out among some of Europe\u2019s most desirable villas. Nearby, the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom Villa Brisas<\/a>, costing \u20ac150,000 a week, has a Jeff Koons diamond sculpture, one of the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone\u2019s \u201cvibrant ring\u201d paintings, and three works by Philip Colbert, the British artist. In this villa the owners are taking no risks with sticky-fingered children \u2014 each work of art is encased behind protective Perspex. <\/p>\n

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Villa Soleil has striking paintings and sculptures around the pool<\/p>\n

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The seven-bedroom l\u2019Oasis des Pins overlooks the sea<\/p>\n

The six-bedroom Villa Marine on the water\u2019s edge inside Les Parcs, a gated community where many of the super-rich (including the billionaires Bernard Arnault and Fran\u00e7ois-Henri Pinault) have homes, is available for from \u20ac110,000 a week through<\/a> Excellence Riviera<\/a>. While The Collectionist<\/a> offers the seven-bedroom l\u2019Oasis des Pins overlooking the sea for \u00a3110,095. But not all villas have six-figure price tags \u2014 Villa Soleil<\/a>, offered by the Firefly Collection for \u20ac61,335 a week, has striking paintings and sculptures around the pool, and the five-bedroom Villa Stellar<\/a>, for \u20ac55,000 a week on Pampelonne beach, is full of original prints by the photographers Slim Aarons and Terry O\u2019Neill. <\/p>\n

Nicolette, the owner of Villa Botania within the Les Parcs, says she rents the villa out in the summer because \u201cthe traffic is a nightmare and I\u2019d rather be elsewhere. We have people from all over the world, Americans, British, Swiss, Canadians, Dubai,\u201d she says. Many of the guests bring a cook to prepare meals, and some their own staff. Each has their own specific demands: some want a nanny, others a yacht. \u201cOnce one guest asked us to provide a housekeeper to unpack their suitcases when they arrived,\u201d she says, \u201cwhile another ordered 70 bottles of ros\u00e9 to be delivered upon their arrival\u201d. Some will also bring their own security guards, in addition to those employed by the villa. Homes with particularly important art collections will also have at least one member of staff permanently on site.<\/p>\n

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Original prints by the photographers Slim Aarons and Terry O\u2019Neill in Villa Stellar<\/p>\n

The art curator Karlina Nathan, who helps many of the villa owners to build up their collections, says she encourages them to include pieces in their homes by artists who have painted in St Tropez, like Paul Signac, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and David Hockney.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt is no longer just a decorative accessory in luxury homes; it\u2019s an integral part of a property\u2019s identity, reflecting the owner\u2019s taste, travels and interests,\u201d Nathan says. And by adding art, she adds, \u201cwe create environments that elevate the experience of a home\u201d. <\/p>\n

What that experience means here is that, if you rent a different house every holiday, you can wake up to a new collection of art each time. When they\u2019re Hockneys and Picassos, that really is an elevated experience.<\/p>\n

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

July 09 2025, 4.00am<\/p>\n

Rosie Davenport<\/p>\n

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

July 02 2025, 6.00am<\/p>\n

Tom Chamberlin<\/p>\n

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

July 02 2025, 6.00am<\/p>\n

Rosie Davenport<\/p>\n

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

July 10 2025, 11.00pm<\/p>\n

Sasha Nugara<\/p>\n

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

what i\u2019ve learnt<\/p>\n

July 11 2025, 5.00am<\/p>\n

Blanca Schofield<\/p>\n

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

July 10 2025, 11.00pm<\/p>\n

Malcolm Jack<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is it an art gallery or a St Tropez holiday villa? , The Times There\u2019s a familiar-looking painting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}