Review 2025

6 Some of the most compelling art stories begin not in a museum or auction room, but in a living room – among antiques, family memories and works that have simply belonged there for generations. This was also the case in the rediscovery and subse- quent auction of ‘Saint-Tropez, port en fête’ by Paul Signac: one of the highlights of our 2025 auction year. Signac, the most important representative of Poin- tillism after Georges Seurat, painted the work in 1895 on the Côte d’Azur. A few years earlier, he had left Paris and sailed south with his boat. The fishing village of Saint-Tropez was like a revelation to him, and soon became his new home. During an inventory valuation, Fiona Seidler, Head of our Munich representative office, was unex- pectedly presented with this vibrantly coloured painting. It later emerged that the work had been considered lost for more than a century; even spe- cialists were only familiar with the subject through a sketch by the artist. Our research confirmed the work’s artistic quality, art-historical significance and material value. Cre- ated at the threshold between Signac’s early work and his mature style, the painting stands out for its assured composition and luminous colour. Added to this are its exceptional state of preservation and an unbroken provenance: the grandfather of the current owners had acquired the painting in 1912 from the Paris gallery Bernheim-Jeune. Particular- ly remarkable is the survival of the original invoice from that time, which was handed over together with the painting – a rare document preserved by the family with the same care as the artwork itself. News of the discovery sparked great enthusi- asm among leading Signac specialists. Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, author of the catalogue rai- sonné, and Charlotte Hellman Cachin, the artist’s great-granddaughter, were delighted by the redis- covery of this key work in Signac’s development. At the June 2025 auction, several private collectors competed for the painting. The winning bid was placed by a US collector, for whom the harbour scene – including buyer’s premium – was worth just under CHF 6.2 million. The result reflects the extraordinary journey of this painting, which had remained hidden for so long. Only a few days af- ter the auction, our logistics department delivered the work to the buyer’s holiday residence … on the Côte d’Azur. A FORTUNATE REDISCOVERY