With more than 30 years experience representing Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, known for their highly-collectible whimsical sculptures of flora and fauna, Paris-based gallerist Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand discusses the dynamic and diverse collector base of one of the 20^th century’s most famous art couples.

How have the deaths of Les Lalanne impacted the prices of their works on the secondary market? Does the death of an artist generally push up prices?

I think that depends mostly on the number of collectors who have already bought pieces, so first you have important collectors all over the world when Claude died who were already supporting the prices because when they decide to buy a new work, they accept to pay for it because they have to support their own collection of works. When an artist dies, you have no possibilities to have new works, so the number of works available on the market cannot change. That creates a desire to possess a work done before death, and so the more collectors are already trained to buy, the more the market is supported. At the same time, as both François-Xavier and Claude created like mad a lot of different works, you have so many possibilities to buy different works, but you have different levels in the market. All the prices are going up, but you have some works that are not discovered yet like the “Centaure” or “Minotaure”, and it’s always a surprise on the market. They always surprise the market, so it’s always a challenge when you sell a Lalanne to create a good surprise and to help the market to go up every year.

Who are the collectors of their works? Any notable, big-name collectors of their work?

The first collectors were European. Myself, during 20 years, I sold a lot of works to French, Belgian, German, Swiss collectors at reasonable prices. That was the first step. Then when the market was strong enough, we decided to increase the prices and the American market was reached by interior designers first. First by Alexander Iolas’ gallery with the de Ménil collection, but after that or at the same time even, you had Jacques Grange and François Catroux working with international collectors, and you had also Peter Marino who introduced the Lalannes to the best collections in the States. The best collectors are Nathalie de Noailles, Agnelli, the Rothschild family, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé, the d’Ornano family, but you had also the Americans buying like my friend Leo Delli, who is a great collector and first supporter of Lalanne from the States, the Tuttle family in California, the famous Schwarzman financial tycoon, who bought from my gallery when I did exhibitions in Palm Beach, Alfred and Judy Taubman. Taubman was the owner of Sotheby’s. You had the famous Jane Holzer, who is a great friend and was Baby Jane for Andy Warhol. I think she’s the most important collector of Lalanne with Peter Marino in the States. As those people had a huge reputation as tastemakers and as collectors, the reputation of the Lalannes increased quickly in the States. Then came Paul Kasmin with his important gallery, which also developed a lot the reputation of Lalanne. There are also a lot of new young collectors. We reach the American market, but we reach also the Chinese market. Ben Brown and myself, we have a lot of collectors in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Are they influenced by European and American collectors?

Yes, but I think that the Lalannes are ambassadors of French taste in contemporary art coming from the 18^th-century French tradition of high taste, which is why they fit so well in Versailles, in the Queen’s Hamlet [in the exhibition Galerie Mitterrand had organized at the Chateau de Versailles in 2021]. Marie-Antoinette was the first queen to order an English park in France when we had French-style gardens traditionally. She created a real change when she ordered an English park. This kind of relation of Marie-Antoinette with nature is really something interesting that built also the Lalanne dream because Marie-Antoinette dreamed of escaping from Versailles to the Queen’s Hamlet and to the English Gardens, to escape the rude attitude of all the people around the King, and the Lalannes help us to escape the city, pollution, all the aggressions of the city. When you are with Lalanne works, you come back to simplicity, nature and a kind of contemplation.

If Marie-Antoinette had been alive at the same time as the Lalannes, would she have been a collector?

I’m sure she would have been. If you saw a rabbit made by Claude, “Lapin de Victoire”, it was exactly in the perfect position to seduce Marie-Antoinette, I think. And if you saw the sheep by François in front of the Queen’s Hamlet, it’s exactly the dream of Marie-Antoinette.

Tell me about Christie’s New York 2021 sale of the “Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres” table that achieved $6.63 million.

I had sold myself those works to Mrs Sydell Miller in the early 2000s, and because she built this extraordinary house in Miami that was done with Peter Marino, she came to my gallery and discovered and bought the “Singes”. Then she came back and she saw the famous table with elephants. The table with elephants was something very special by François-Xavier Lalanne because as he put elephants under the table, you cannot use the table; it’s a room centerpiece, you put it in a big entrance, so you need a huge house to place this table and she knew how to use it. She did an extraordinary decor, and the house was famous for the quality and the collections inside. The table is very rare. I think François-Xavier did two or three of it, not more. In the States, you have so much money. You never know if there will be two or three very rich people who want the same thing. They don’t care about the price. The quality of the work is extraordinary because the table looks like a tree and you have a herd of elephants of different sizes under it, each of them different from the other. It has a safari look, something very special, full of imagination and so well done. It’s a beauty. It was more than $6 million because it depends on the number of collectors competing to buy, but the piece is really something impressive and rare.

Why is it that works that the Lalannes made individually have achieved higher prices at auction than works they made together?

I think firstly because I never saw any “Minotaure” or “Centaure” at auction. They’re very rare. Secondly because I think the subjects they did together are a tribute to mythology, but mythology is a little far from their own universe. It’s a little fantasy for them, and they did it because they had the idea, but in fact, it’s not their usual way of working. They worked separately and on more modest models. I had sold a beautiful “Centaure” to the city of Taipei in Taiwan and a “Minotaure” to some good collections, but they’re less specific than their usual works and never appeared at auction.