Socialite history goes on the block
Sirio Maccioni, the ringmaster of Le Cirque who died last year at 88, used to half-joke that all he really did was stop people from stealing the famed restaurant’s schwag: marked ashtrays, coffee cups and silverware. Anyone who has ever wanted a memento will have opportunities through May 12 as Black Rock Galleries hosts an online auction to sell many of the original contents from Le Cirque over the course of its multiple locations from 1974 to 2018.
The 314 lots range from plates and aprons to a silver-plated carving trolley. As with any auction, it’s always good to have a professional who can distinguish the best items from the pedestrian. As the co-author of Sirio’s autobiography, I’ve spent much of my life with all of these items and can happily direct you.
First, let’s not compare this auction to the last big restaurant auction, the US$4.1 million dollar sale of mid-century treasures from the Four Seasons in 2016. The Four Seasons was a landmarked Philip Johnson design; items included A-list collectibles by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Hans Wegner, Eero Saarinen, and L. Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable that are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Le Cirque was a different story. It moved from location to location in Manhattan and expanded to Las Vegas, New Delhi, Bangalore, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, and Dubai, mimicking its clientele and the tastes of multiple periods. Each Manhattan location was a sum of its parts. Taken out of context, it might seem like, well, a lot of junk. Rows and rows on the website present used chairs, “Hotel silver” creamers your grandmother gave you (and you still don’t know what to do with), and the odd, bevelled mirror. Don’t expect huge prices, except on some key items.
The prize, surely, will be Kenneth Stern’s six original, Fragonard-inspired mural paintings of monkeys (Lots 10-15) in all sorts of culinary scenes. These hung in the tiny room that was the original location on 65th Street (now part of the restaurant Daniel), so they acted as principal decor. Under these monkeys sat the most beautiful and powerful women in the world — and a few qualifying men — as exemplified by the famous photograph of Maccioni at his most handsome, lying in front of them.
“It would be great to maybe sell them all in one batch, but we’re also selling them individually,” says Mauro Maccioni, Sirio’s youngest son. “Many a celebrity has sat underneath those murals.”
As with many famous or infamous restaurant murals — the sea view from La Côte Basque, or the French park scenes that graced La Caravelle (one of which is at the 55th Street Sweetgreen in Manhattan) — he may or may not get his wish. It will take someone with a particular vision and an expensive decorator to put them in one space.