AN EVENTFUL 40TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR!

2023 Results

With sales revenue of €9,007,000 - up 45% from the previous year - and two additional million-dollar auctions, raising their number to 15 over the span of 40 years, 2023 has been a great year for Rouillac Auctioneers! The family history will incidentally be depicted in a 45-minute report broadcast on France 2 on December 10, 2023 as part of the "Familles de légendes" (Legendary Families) series.

Fontana and Shiraga

Two million-dollar sales marked the 35th edition of our annual Garden Party Auction, held in a Loire Valley Castle every Spring since 1989. A 1962 foot-painting entitled T. 34, painted by Japanese artist and Gutaï member Kazuo Shiraga fetched the record sum of €1,860,000. Discovered by Aymeric Rouillac in an Amboise collection, it had been declined by no less than four auction houses previously contacted by its owner, who only thought he was making a “good deed” when he bought it in 1990! Later that day, a ca. 1595 painting by Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana depicting Antonietta Gonsalvus, a hair-covered child member of the French court, was sold for €1,550,000. Coming from a house in Burgundy, it had been scratched with nail heads by children playing in an attic who disliked it…

Legendary Families on France 2

"Our greatest pride is that eight of our fifteen million-dollar auctions were totally unexpected for their owners" said auctioneers Aymeric and Philippe Rouillac, founder of the eponymous auction house in 1983. On December 10, France 2 will broadcast a 45-minute report entitled "Rouillac: sous le feu des enchères" ("Rouillac: under auction fire") as part of their "Familles de légende" ("Legendary families") series, highlighting the family’s commitment to passing on knowledge, expertise and heritage alongside other famous French families such as the Bocuses or the Lurtons. (This report will be available on the France.tv app for one year.)

Fontainebleau, the Olympia Hall and the Musée des Arts Forains

Among this year's most notable auctions are the September white-glove sale of the Passenaud Collection of Classic Trucks - led by a 1949 Berliet truck selling for €101,000 – that fetched close to one million euro in a joyful atmosphere; a drawing by Jean-Baptiste Oudry that was pre-empted in June by the Château de Fontainebleau for €124,000 prior to a major exhibition to be held in 2024; an incredible wooden Citroën 2CV that set a world record at €210,000 and was bought by the Musée des Arts Forains in Paris; and a painting by Bernard Buffet that sold for €138,000 in November in the 700-person amphitheater of the Palais des Congrès-Le Vinci in Tours.

Aymeric Rouillac's charity sales and parties, in particular the Nuit du Bien Commun held at the Olympia Hall, also raised over 1,844 million euros in 2023.

A 36th Garden Party Auction on May 26, 2024

The annual Garden Party Auction will take place on Sunday, May 26, 2024 at the Château d'Artigny in Touraine: it already features a previously unknown bronze by Bugatti, a painting of a bather by Renoir and a royal-quality seat by Sené... The auction catalog will be finalized at the beginning of April: don’t forget to send us the treasures you'd want to see included by then!

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