Press Release

Gérard Oury (1919-2006) was a major collector.
Now, with the sale of the Gérard Oury Collection on April 20/21, his daughter Danièle Thompson reveals the famous film-maker’s passion for art.

Gérard Oury would have been 90 this year. He was born in 1919, on the threshold of Les Années Folles, and accompanied his mother Marcelle through the social and artistic whirlwind of interwar Paris. The young Gérard played with Foufou (Foujita) and his cats, lolled on a stool in Dufy’s studio, and went for tea with Villon and Gromaire. Pictures by Marcelle’s artist-friends lined the walls of the apartment in Rue de La Tour where Gérard grew up. After acting first in the theatre, then in films, Gérard Oury’s career as a director took off in the 1960s with such comedy hits as Le Corniaud (The Sucker) and La Grande Vadrouille (Don’t Look Now – We’re Being Shot At). Their box-office success enabled Gérard to follow in Marcelle’s footsteps, and buy paintings by the artists he had loved since childhood: Villon, Gromaire, Charles Lapicque and his close friend Dufy.

“Gérard Oury adored his pictures, especially his Dufys. He was distraught when he was deprived of them after losing his sight at the end of his life” recalls Danièle Thompson.

The Gérard Oury Collection, comprising nearly 300 lots, will be sold under the gavel of Francis Briest at the Hôtel Marcel-Dassault.

Colour and draughtsmanship, which Gérard Oury prized so highly, underscore his collection.

Works by Raoul Dufy predominate, with a superb ensemble of nearly 100 works illustrating all the themes and periods of his career. There are also some forty works by Jacques Villon, thirty works on paper by Marcel Gromaire, an ensemble of drawings by Maillol, and paintings by Charles Lapicque and Marc Chagall.

The sale also includes the important Marcelle & Gérard Oury Library, with many handwritten dedications; drawings by Jean Cocteau, Guillaume Apollinaire, Colette and Foujita; and items of furniture from Gérard Oury’s Paris home in Rue de Courcelles.

The overall sale estimate is €4.7-6.5m.

Sale Info

Sales: 1596-1672

Location: Hôtel Marcel Dassault

Sessions: Sale 1596: 20 April at 8pm
Sale 1672: 21 April 2009 at 2:30pm

Auctionner: Francis Briest

Exhibitions

Hôtel Marcel Dassault

Viewing of entire Collection

14-19 April, 11am-7pm

Hôtel Marcel Dassault
7 rond-point des Champs Elysées
F-75008 Paris

Travelling Exhibition

New York (French Embassy)

5-7 March, 11am-7pm

Payne Whitney Mansion
Cultural Services of the French Embassy

972 Fifth Avenue
NY 10021 New York

Cologne (Lempertz)

19-20 March, 11am-6pm

Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Cologne

Zurich (Koller)

26-27 March, 10am-6pm

28 March, 10am-3pm

Hardturmstrasse 102
CH-8031 Zurich

Bruxelles (Lempertz)

2-3 April, 11am-6pm

Rue aux Laines 1
B-1000 Bruxelles

Catalogue

Gérard Oury Collection - Part 1

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Gérard Oury Collection - Part 2

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Department

Modern Art >

Specialist

Violaine de La Brosse-Ferrand

Phone +33 1 42 99 20 32

Press Contact

Armelle Maquin

Phone +33 1 43 14 05 69

Mob. +33 6 11 70 44 74