A villa outside Paris that once belonged to the late fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld was sold at auction on Tuesday for 4.7 million euros.
The sale was conducted using a unique, traditional method where the bidding period is timed by the burning of candles.
Lagerfeld, who passed away in 2019, had purchased the villa in Louveciennes, west of Paris, in 2010. The selling price just exceeded the initial asking price of 4.6 million euros ($5.4 million). After his death, the property remained abandoned until a real estate company acquired it in 2023.
The auction itself, a “candle auction,” is still common in France. In this method, the bidding window is marked by the burning of two small candles, each lasting approximately fifteen seconds—a style the late designer might have appreciated.
The villa sits within a two-hectare (five-acre) park and includes three separate houses, a swimming pool, and a tennis court. According to Jerome Cauro of Arias, the firm managing the sale, the property is designed to ensure “discretion and anonymity” with its surrounding trees and walls.
Lagerfeld’s studio took up a significant portion of the main house’s first floor. His muse and associate, Amanda Harlech, told Vogue in 2021 that Lagerfeld “put everything into this last house; he loved it. He called it ‘the true version of himself.” He even had his childhood bedroom replicated in a small room featuring leopard-print walls.
According to Arias, the fashion legend undertook “colossal works” on the property, which had a rich history, previously belonging to 19th-century poet Leconte de Lisle and members of the Rothschild family. Arno Felber, another notary at Arias, estimated the cost of these renovations to be nearly equal to the asking price of the villa itself.
Despite the extensive work and personal touches, legend suggests that Lagerfeld only spent one night there. Felber described the mansion primarily as “a property for peace, rest, and study,” where Lagerfeld enjoyed hosting guests.
This sale follows another successful auction of Lagerfeld’s property earlier this year: his futuristic three-room Paris apartment sold for 10 million euros in March 2024, double its asking price.
