At the insistence of Berge, the sale will take place in Paris with all profits going to the Fondation Pierre Berge - Yves Saint Laurent. (Source) The collection is believed to be worth up to 300 million pounds ($599 million USD) and has been dubbed by French newspaper Le Figaro as “the sale of the century”. In addition to a range of Old Masters, the collection is said to include a stunning array of modern art treasures from such luminaries as Picasso, Warhol, Mondrian and Leger. (Source) The duo’s collection also includes an extremely eclectic mix of objets d’art ranging from Renaissance bronze sculptures to Art Deco masterpieces by Armand-Albert Rateau, Eileen Gray and others.

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It’s good to go home from time to time … sort of. If you can tear yourself away from the warm embrace (read: smothering grasp) of your family to venture out into the real world, it’s nice to reconnect with the people and places that once shaped and nurtured you. In between two legs of my last vacation, I did just that when I touched down briefly in Montreal, one of my former “homes”.

For those of you unfamiliar with Canada’s most effortlessly stylish city (sorry Toronto), Montreal is a rare hybrid of Gallic style and sensibility combined with Anglo-saxon efficiency. The food is exquisite and varied, the people are friendly, the shopping is good and plentiful and the vibe is cool and laid back. OK, I’m not exactly objective but still, it’s hard not to like Montreal. 

I left Montreal a number of years ago to pursue professional opportunities and have since lived all over. When I occasionally return to my former home, I’m always curious to re-visit old haunts and make mental notes of what has changed and what remains the same. On this most recent trip, I couldn’t help but notice the unmistakable effects of globalization.

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I was in New York City during New York Fashion Week last February. The Fall/Winter 2008 collections were being unveiled and a friend of mine who works in the fashion industry attended the Carolina Herrera show. When I met up with him, he couldn’t stop raving about the magnificent hats that adorned the models’ heads and the long, elegant feathers that swayed rhythmically as the models made their way down the catwalk.

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