About Artcurial

Matthieu Fournier joined Artcurial in 2005 as both a specialist and an auctioneer, and in 2007 created the department dedicated to Old Master & the 19^th Century Art. Trained at Christie's in the Inventory Department, he developed a taste for a generalist approach to the profession which he has been putting into practice since 2017 in the exercise of his office as a licensed auctioneer.

The dynamism and efficiency he has brought to his clientele of demanding collectors have enabled him to take Artcurial’s Old Masters Department from €1.5m of sales in 2007 to €23.9m of sales in 2019, establishing numerous records along the way and organising the sale of several prestigious private collections.

It was under his hammer that the Louis Grandchamp des Raux Collection was sold (€8.7m) in 2015 as well as the Fernand Lafarge Collection (€6.2m) in 2019. The success of Artcurial’s Old Master & 19^th Century Art department owes much to trio formed by Matthieu Fournier and specialists Elisabeth Bastier and Matthias Ambroselli as well as the quality of catalogues they produce, highly appreciated by the international community of collectors, curators and connoisseurs.

Matthieu Lamoure has been running Artcurial Motorcars since 2010, when he took over Artucurial’s Classic Cars Department created by Hervé Poulain.

Son of art teachers, who passed on to him their taste for aesthetics, Matthieu became fascinated by the beauty of motorcars from a very early age. In 1996, after studies based on art, art appraisal and the art market, he started his career with Hervé Poulain.

In 2003 he joined Bonhams Europe in Geneva as a specialist, becoming Director - Europe three years later. He launched the famous English auction house’s automobile sales at the annual French classic car show, Retromobile, as well as overseeing auctions in Monaco, Gstaad and Reims.

Four years later Hervé Poulain, wanting to take a step back, offered Matthieu the opportunity to take over his Classic Cars Department at Artcurial. In 2010, accompanied by Pierre Novikoff and Iris Hummel, he took the wheel of this historic department, creating a completely new image with a revitalised communication strategy and renaming it Artcurial Motorcars; today it is the leader in its field in Continental Europe.

Through official auctions at Paris’s Retromobile and at the Le Mans Classic and classic car sales on the Champs Elysées in Paris and in Monaco, the department’s turnover rose from €6m in 2009 to nearly €80m in 2016. Matthieu has been entrusted with the sale of many historic collections, including the cars of HSH The Prince of Monaco in 2012, the Citroëns of André Trigano and the ‘Solo Alfa’ and Alain Prost collections. His sales have seen multiple world records broken, for example the 1957 Ferrari 335S from the Pierre Bardinon Collection, which fetched €32m, setting the record price for a car sold at auction (in Euros and Pounds). Discovering the Baillon Collection together with his colleague Pierre Novikoff, the biggest barn find of untouched classic cars in the last 50 years, remains one of his most unforgettable moments.

Martin Guesnet, half French half German, is passionate about contemporary art. For 10 years he was an actor with avant-garde theatre troops in Germany before switching to concentrate on the fine arts. From 1986 to 1997 he was Director of the Galerie Beaubourg, Paris/Vence, after which he managed the Karsten Greve gallery in Paris.

He joined Francis Briest auction house in 1998 and dedicated himself to developing the contemporary art sales market in France. Between 2002 and 2014 he managed Artcurial’s Contemporary Art Department where, under his direction, several collections were sold, including those of Jean Bousquet, Daniel and Florence Guerlain and Micheline and Claude Renard, as well as Jean Pollack.

In 2012 he was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

In 2014 Martin was appointed Director - Europe and is in charge of developing Artcurial’s European activities and co-ordinating the German, Austrian, Belgian and Italian offices.

After having worked alongside Francis Briest for fourteen years, in 2002 Marie Sanna-Legrand joined him at Artcurial, in the Modern Paintings department.

In 2013, François Tajan chose her to lead the department of Important Watches. Three years later that initiative has resulted in a total of over 4.5 million euros in sales: a 60 % increase since the creation of the department.

In 2018, Marie Sanna-Legrand developed a unique and exclusive concept: Le Temps est Féminin, a sale devoted entirely to women’s timepieces. A great success, it achieved remarkable results, including a Bulgari Serpenti that sold for €436,600 including fees, and brought vintage watches from the 70s - including Piaget watches - back into fashion. 

Assisted by an excellent team whose accessibility and professionalism are unfailing, the Watch Department has been entrusted with the sale of several important collections, including that of a racing car driver in 2016, the Schwartz Collection in 2018 and the Fondation Napoléon in 2019.

Over the past five years, under the direction of Marie Sanna-Legrand, the department of Important Watches has progressed significantly, becoming one of the major players on the market, and has earned the recognition and gained the confidence of watch lovers all over the world.

With a law degree, studies at the prestigious Louvre School of Art and as a graduate of the French National Institute of Gemmology, Julie Valade earned her stripes working alongside Jacques Tajan in the Art Deco Department, then in managing the Jewellery Department at Tajan auction house.

Having learned the art and science of appraisal with Chantal Beauvois, in 2005 she was asked by François Tajan to create the Jewellery and Watch and Clock Department for Artcurial.

In July 2006, the first Artcurial sale in Monaco sold, among other notable lots, a blue diamond for €1.4m.

For more than 10 years Julie, together with her team, has worked diligently in providing high quality services to sellers and buyers, setting record after record for pieces made by the greatest names in jewellery - Suzanne Belperron, Boivin, Van Cleef and Arpels, Cartier,etc., as well as for exceptional stones, such as the Van Cleef and Arpels ring set with a pear diamond weighing 16.87 carats which sold for €1.7m in 2014 or a Kashmir sapphire which sold for €900,000 in 2015.

Hervé Poulain is an emblematic figure in the art world and has orchestrated with great aplomb sales in all specialities since 1969.

Mad about beauty and speed, amateur pilot and art professional, he invented the concept of Art Cars by asking Modern Artists (Calder, Stella, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Arman, César, Wolinski) to paint the cars he piloted during Le Mans 24 Hour race. Amongst his eleven entries between 1975 and 1998 ‘the fastest auctioneer in the world’ finished the endurance race six times with his best result a victory in his class with a BMW 2L in 1977 and 6^th overall in a BMW M1 in 1979.

Hervé Poulain has organised motorcar sales in France since 1974 at a rate of four to six per year. In 2002 he co-founded the auction house Artcurial and became President of Honour in 2015. In 2010, anxious to sustain the Motorcars department he convinced Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff to leave an Anglo-Saxon auction house and much to his great delight they agreed to take over the reins at Artcurial. Better than any trio, they are a triumvirat! The three compères breathe a unique ambiance into their department and auctions thanks to their knowledge, unique spirit, authority and enthusiasm.

Hervé Poulain is the author of books; L’Art et l'Automobile (1973), Un Siècle de peinture française (1976), Une Collection d'Avance (1986), L’Art, la Femme et l’Automobile (1989), Mes Pop Cars (2006), Le marteau et son maître (2010).