Christie's Paris to auction Onzea-Govaerts collection curated by Axel Vervoordt

On March 27, 2025, Christie's will hold a single-owner auction in Paris of the Onzea-Govaerts Collection, curated by designer, antiquarian and collector Axel Vervoordt. The collection, assembled by Joris Onzea and Suzanne Govaerts in Flanders from the 1970s, spans Egyptian and Flemish art, African art, and contemporary painting. The top lot is Pieter Brueghel the Younger's "The Wedding Banquet" (estimate €1.5-2.5 million), one of the couple's first purchases in 1976. It is the only known version signed and dated (1622). Other highlights include Lucio Fontana's "Concetto spaziale. Attese" (1960, estimate €700,000-1 million), Yves Klein's 1961 work on cardboard (estimate from €80,000), 13 works by Rik Wouters, a 17th-century Edo-period folding screen (€20,000-30,000), a Kota reliquary (€80,000-120,000), and a Baule sculpture (€60,000-80,000). The total estimate is between €7 and 12 million. Suzanne Govaerts inherited the family company Fort from her father Karel Govaerts, and with her husband developed the CASA interior design store format.