By
AFP
Published
July 1, 2025
A town on the outskirts of Paris, owned by the late fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld, sold at an auction on Tuesday for 4.7 million euros, under a traditional method where time is counted by candles.
Bought in 2010 by Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, the town in Louveciennes to the west of Paris reached the sale price of 4.6 million euros ($ 5.4 million).
Abandoned after his death, the house was bought in 2023 by a real estate company.
Held in a style that the same designer may have approved, the sale took place according to the traditional night auction method, as a call “candle auction”.
In a candle auction, which is still common in France, the sales time is defined by the burning of two small candles, each of about fifteen seconds.
The town is in a two -hectare park (five acres) with three separate houses, a pool and a tennis court. The house is surrounded by trees or walls that guarantee “discretion and anonymity,” said Jerome Cauro, from Arias, the company that manages the sale.
The designer's study occupied a large part of the first floor of the main house.
“He put everything in this last house; he really loved.
Chanel's former creative director even had his childhood room recreated in a small room with leopard printed walls.
According to Arias, the fashion legend carried out “colossal works” on the property, which belonged to the poet of the 19th century Leconte de Lisle and members of the Rothschild family in the first half of the 19th century.
“We do not have the invoice, but we estimate that the cost of work is close to the sale price,” said Arno Felber, also a notary in Arias.
The legend says that Lagerfeld only slept there one night.
The mansion was above all “a property for peace, rest and study”, where Lagerfeld liked to entertain the guests, Felber said.
In March 2024, the Future Apartment of Paris in Tres Roos de Lagerfeld was sold for 10 million euros at the Althemis firm, twice its initial price.
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