Paris auction of Impressionist works falls short

Christie's auction house said in a statement it raised €7.67 million ($9.67 million) at its evening sale of works by artists including Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It had originally valued the collection at €20 million ($25.2 million).

The highest-selling work in the sale was Renoir's "Woman with a Parasol Sitting in the Garden," which fetched €1.16 million ($1.46 million) below its estimate of €1.2 million ($1.51 million) to €1.8 million ($2.27 million), according to Christie's.

Only 23 of the 31 lots were sold, it said. Among the paintings that failed to find a buyer was Renoir's "The Tapestry in the Park (Presumed Portrait of Camille Monet)," which had been estimated at €2.5 million ($3.15 million) to €3.5 million ($4.41 million).

Further works by artists including Edgar Degas, Eugene Boudin and Camille Pissarro also stayed on the shelf.

"Unsold works are the reflection of estimates considered excessive by the current market, while those paintings with reasonable estimates drew great interest from international collectors," Anika Guntrum, head of Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art department, said in the statement.

Lanvin, who died in 1946 at the age of 79, started off making clothes for her daughter. She went on to become one of France's most influential designers of the 1920s and '30s, creating the classic fragrance "Arpege."

The paintings originally hung in her Paris apartment, designed by the architect and interior designer Armand-Albert Rateau. A portion of the interior is now on show at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go toward two arts charities run by the Polignac dynasty, the aristocratic family which Lanvin's daughter Marie-Blanche married into.

The Lanvin fashion label lives on, under the artistic direction of the critically acclaimed Israeli-American designer Alber Elbaz.