The famous auction house Sotheby’s has scheduled an online auction from July 2 to July 8 featuring over 1,000 previously unseen personal sketches by designer Karl Lagerfeld. Starting bids for all items will be 1 euro. Alongside the auction, a public exhibition of the designer’s works and personal items will be held in Paris until July 7. The collection includes drawings created by Lagerfeld starting from the 1970s, comprising working sketches, illustrations, and satirical political caricatures, none of which have been displayed publicly before.
Karl Lagerfeld, who passed away in 2019, left behind an extensive personal archive, encompassing not only creative materials but also art and design objects. According to Sotheby’s, this auction will be the sixth sale of the designer’s estate following auctions in Paris, Cologne, and Monaco. The auction house emphasized that this sale will conclude the dispersal of items from Lagerfeld’s personal collection.
The sketches displayed in the auction will offer a deeper understanding of the designer’s creative process, illustrating his approach to realizing his concepts. Additionally, the auction items will include the designer’s personal belongings, such as his signature fingerless gloves and a collection of approximately 200 iPods, which he used to organize music by genre and to prepare soundtracks for fashion shows.
Interest in Lagerfeld’s personal archives remains significant even after his passing, as evidenced by previous exhibitions and auctions, including a retrospective in New York in 2023. Sotheby’s highlights that this summer’s auction presents the final opportunity for collectors to acquire unique items from the designer’s archive that have not been accessible to the general public before.