Chez Sotheby’s, a restaurant concept decorated with $150 million worth of art, will run October 19–24.Illustration: Cecila Carlstedt

Sotheby’s Is Opening a Parisian Restaurant Filled With $150 M. of Art During Art Basel Paris

by · ARTnews

Sotheby’s Paris is getting into the restaurant business, at least for a week.

During Art Basel Paris next month, the auction house will take over an apartment on Rue de Rivoli overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries, filling it with nearly $150 million worth of art by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon, and others.

And, because simply hanging all that art on the walls apparently wasn’t enough, Sotheby’s is leaning all the way into the fantasy, putting restaurant in the middle of the exhibition. The whole event promises to be a cross between dropping by Gertrude Stein’s apartment and having lunch at Café de Flore in the 1960s, only with the added convenience that nearly everything on the walls is for sale. There will be Italian food and French desserts as well as champagne and martinis mixed by Colin Field, the former head bartender at the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz.

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“Great art is best experienced in good company. Chez Sotheby’s brings art and people together in a setting that feels natural, social and distinctly Parisian,” David Rothschild, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art and private sales for the UK, said in a statement.

Called “Chez Sotheby’s,” the project will run October 19 to October 24 and is being organized with the art and design consultants _Polimeno. Sotheby’s is billing it as something between an exhibition, restaurant, and old-fashioned Parisian salon, with visitors invited to have a drink, eat lunch, and, presumably, contemplate whether that Richter would look good above the sofa.

“Art and food have the same magic: they bring people together,” Valerio Polimeno said in a statement. “More than an exhibition, Chez Sotheby’s was imagined as a place to gather, spend time and discover art in a memorable setting.”

Among the works on offer will be Pablo Picasso’s Deux nus couchés (1968).

The art, importantly, is all available for private sale. At nearly $150 million, Sotheby’s said the group constitutes the most valuable private-sales exhibition it has ever mounted in Europe. Along with works by Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, Richter, and Bacon, the apartment will include a special presentation devoted to Alexander Calder. A full list of works will be announced later.

Chez Sotheby’s will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. A limited number of complimentary lunch reservations will be available each day at 1 p.m., though Sotheby’s is keeping the precise address under wraps for now.