NEW YORK, 16 May 2018 – Today, Sotheby’s is honored to unveil the full contents of A Collection That We Dreamt Of: Art and Design from the Homes of Delphine and Reed Krakoff, which we will offer in a dedicated auction on the evening of 23 May 2018 in New York. Collected by the celebrated designers over the course of nearly two decades, the pieces on offer have lived in one or more of the Krakoffs’ impeccably-designed residences including: their New York City townhouse; the famed Lasata estate in East Hampton; the sprawling Clark House in New Canaan, Connecticut; and their historic 18th-century home in Paris. The evening auction will offer an encyclopedic range of works by leading artists and designers spanning from 18th- and 19th-century American and French furniture to Pre-War, Post-War and Contemporary Design, Contemporary Art, and beyond – all seamlessly united by Delphine and Reed’s sophisticated taste, their shared approach to collecting, and the superlative quality of the works themselves.

The collection will be on public exhibition in Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning 19 May, alongside our auctions of Important Design and Thomas Molesworth: Designing the American West.

WATCH: DELPHINE AND REED KRAKOFF REVEAL THE COLLECTION OF A LIFETIME

LOUIS XVI HÔTEL PARTICULIER, PARIS
Regarding the Krakoffs’ historic 18th-century home in Paris, renowned interior designer Jacques Grange wrote: “On one of the most beautiful streets in the Left Bank neighborhood of Saint-Germain des-Prés, in a fabled hôtel particulier dating back to the eighteenth century, through an imposing gate opening to a sheltered courtyard, there lies a vast residence that Delphine and Reed Krakoff call their home in Paris. In the living room, eighteenth-century period pieces harmoniously cohabit with contemporary creations; a whimsical and aquatic Mattia Bonnetti table sits atop a gorgeous Emilio Terry carpet and under a graphic Damien Hirst spin painting. Books cover every inch of the library, and nestled among them, the tentacles of the Bouroullec brothers’ chandelier unfurl in the space and bring an unpredictable breath of life. The juxtaposition is delightful—unexpected, but balanced, and full of energy. The master bedroom is a study in mellowness, all shades of grays and chalky whites, evoking the elegant worlds of Christian Bérard and Christian Dior.

TOWNHOUSE, NEW YORK CITY
Regarding the Krakoffs’ New York City townhouse, Marc Benda, co-founder of Friedman Benda gallery, wrote: “Talk to Reed and Delphine about their choices for door hinges, flatware, library steps, the lighting in the staircase — no detail too minute to warrant true scrutiny — and you know you have landed in a Kunstkammer of our time. They will recall the time and place that any work of art, or indeed any single book in the extensive library, was purchased. The hunt for the historical piece or the dialogue with the living designer evolves into a metaphysical element of the home and what surrounds its habitants.

Effortlessly, the rooms will transport you across the major avant-garde styles of the twentieth century and allow a glimpse of what twenty-first-century currents in taste have in store for us. But first and foremost it is a warm family home, a place where houseguests are entertained with home-cooked meals within a library that keeps claiming more space, almost as a living organism.”

CLARK HOUSE, CONNECTICUT
Regarding the Krakoffs’ sprawling Clark House in New Canaan, Connecticut, Martha Stewart wrote: “Reed and Delphine are kindred spirits: they are excited by the unusual, the exotic, the unknown, the hard to get. An adjective like mysterious, a word that would turn away most home buyers – served only to attract this talented and adventuresome couple to a large, lonely house in Connecticut. That the house, owned by the eccentric and reclusive copper heiress Huguette Clark, was on the market for decades was also a plus as was the fact that the owner/heiress had never even slept there.

Le Beau Chateau, constructed of brick and roofed in slate, needed a complete restoration, as did the extensive grounds and woodlands, which featured fields, forests, and rivers. The renovation took a bit more than a year, and the results are astonishing. This is the most recent effort of turning a house, a grand house, into a home for a living, breathing family, and it is as successful, if not more so, than any of the others. Bravo Reed and Delphine for making this ‘mysterious’ abode a thing of beauty and grace.”

LASATA, EAST HAMPTON
Once the summer home of the Bouvier family, the famed Lasata residence is an important historical estate on the east end of Long Island. The Krakoffs filled this residence with a mix of both contemporary design and art with classic antiques, creating an elegant, stylish retreat where a Bernard Boutet de Monvel painting hung near a pair of Aux Branchette tables by Claude Lalanne. According to Reed Krakoff, “Each of our homes reflects a combination of aesthetics, lifestyle and location, and every property begins with a colour as its touchstone… for Lasata, a historic weekend home near the ocean, which was all about light inside and out, sunflower-yellow was the obvious choice.”