Artcurial to Sell Marie-Claude Beaud's Collection in Paris This December

Nearly 200 lots from the estate of Marie-Claude Beaud (1946–2024) will go under the hammer at Artcurial in Paris on December 1st, 2026. Beaud built her reputation as an institutional leader, becoming the first director of the Fondation Cartier, where from 1984 she shaped an early model of private patronage grounded in artistic freedom and cross-disciplinary exchange. She carried that conviction — that a museum is an experience to be lived, not merely visited — into her tenure at Mudam Luxembourg and later at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. The auction selection follows the arc of a career that influenced successive generations of artists and institutions. Works spanning from César to Jean-Michel Othoniel are among the pieces catalogued, according to the announcement. The sale places a private collection assembled by one of contemporary art's defining administrators on the open market, with Paris as the venue and Artcurial as auction house.