Illustrious origins: rare works from Galerie Steinitz | Christie's

One of the first and most important things I learned when I was a younger man was we are not owners, we're not proprietors of those pieces. We're only appreciating them and passing them to the next generation. This is our role. The Maison Steinitz was founded by my parents in the period after the war in the early 1960s, started from nothing. They were instrumental in what we are today. They led me to understand that the life of an art person is a gift. The title of the sale is Provenance Revealed. It's a common aim and a common passion we have about discovering, about inquiring, about revealing the history of those objects. For example, the wonderful tête-à-tête, the little Viennese imperial porcelain little service. We have the storytelling of the relationship between Austria and France. It's fascinating to see through that porcelain set that was brought by Marie Antoinette to France. It's actually the relationship between those two countries which is told to us. It's very difficult for me to favor one or another lot because I love them all, but one of the very important lot is undoubtedly the very spectacular pair of early 18th century Chinese porcelain vases. They bear the wedding coat of arms, symbolizing and celebrating the alliance of Mademoiselle Pépin and the Comte de Belle-Île. They are fascinating not only because technically they were extremely difficult to achieve at the time, but also as important is that the remain of that particular set bearing the same coat of arms than our vases are still kept today in Buckingham Palace. One of my favorite sculptures is a wonderful white marble sculpture from the first half of the 18th century representing Narses. The surface of the marble is impeccable which is always so important. This sculpture belonged to the very celebrated collection of Antoine-Louis de Crozat, who was very close to the king himself and a great collector. One of the great aspects of being passionate about decorative arts and general is that through their collection people survive. I am very excited that for the first time the objects and their history will be attached through the system of a blockchain. I love the idea of attaching our research, our discoveries to the object through new technologies. A great say in our profession is that you have to learn and the most important thing you know is that you don't know and every day you have to train, you have to learn and little by little you start to know a little bit more or not know a little bit less, it depends. It's an ongoing process. It's a new story every day. It's wonderful.