Pierre Berge, the partner of Yves Saint Laurent, said he decided to sell the couple’s multi-million pound collection of art because it became “meaningless” after the fashion designer’s death last year.
Mr Berge has put 733 items up for auction, including works by Gaugin, Picasso, Klimt, Degas and Cezanne.
Art experts have valued the collection between 200 and 500 million euros and it will go on display in Paris on February 23.
Mr Berge said he no longer saw the point of keeping the collection once his couturier partner had passed away: “After his death, I decided there was no longer any reason for it to exist.
“The works will never die. It is only the collection that is disappearing. The works will find other collectors who will buy them and take care of them.”
The 79-year-old, who ran the YSL fashion house for years, told the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that he was quite at ease, parting with so many works of art.
“It is an interesting experience, not sad,” he said. “Everyone dreams of attending their own funeral. I am going to attend the funeral of my collection.”
Most of the money raised by the collection will go towards HIV-Aids research.
Mr Berge added: “I always regarded these works as just passing through our hands, I can live without them. Saint Laurent never could have.
“He was a psychotic personality who needed familiar objects around him.”
Last November, art experts in China criticised the selling of bronze pieces from the collection, arguing that its country’s treasures were being plundered for a second time.
Two pieces in particular provoked anger: a pair of bronze animal heads from the “Zodiac Clock” of the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing.
Christie’s, which is running the sale, said the sculptures had a “clear and extensive” history of ownership and clear legal title, while the company always strictly adhered to any laws “with respect to cultural property and national patrimony of art”.
