New World Record for Ron Arad

Ron Arad, Restless (2007) Courtesy Artcurial

Ron Arad’s stainless steel bookcase Restless (2007) sold for €373,800 at Paris’ Artcurial on October 27─more than doubling its lower presale of €150,000. Restless was the star of a twenty-lot sale conceived to represent the Israeli-born designer’s thirty-year career. Every piece has found a new home. The second and third top lot were the armchair MT Rocker (2006), which sold for €200,200 (presale estimate: €60,000-80,000), and the armchair Parpadelle (1992) which also fetched €200,200 (presale: €80,000-120,000).

The sale fetched a combined €1,727,970, more than twice its presale estimate. Some of the items are said to have been acquired for the Watergate Hotel, slated to open in Washington D.C in 2015.

The new record follows the world record for Jean Prouvé, set at Artcurial last May when Table Trapèze (1956) reached €1,241,300, doubling its upper presale estimate of €600,000 (see “New World Record for Jean Prouvé”).

“Artcurial has reaffirmed its reputation as an international reference point for design,” commented Emmanuel Berard, director of the design department at Artcurial. “The bold choice to organize a Design sale to coincide with FIAC—the global gathering for contemporary art—has proven a great success,” he explained.

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