“Buattacon” – Mario’s Final Farewell

Last week’s Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors auction at Sotheby’s was nothing short of a sensation that would have surely tickled pink The Prince of Chintz. His treasures exceeded Sotheby’s highest projected estimate by 2.5 times, bringing in $7.6 million! New York designer Nick Olsen dubbed the two-day event “Buattacon”… the Super Bowl of the chintz and china set (source). Decorators and admirers from across the globe fought to own a piece of Mario’s iconic collection of dog paintings, fine porcelain, 18th and 19th century antiques, and whimsical needlepoint pillows. Bidding became so fierce “It was blood sport,” said Christopher Spitzmiller, lamp designer and one of Mario’s dear friends (source).

image from the estate of Mario Buatta

Mario loved publicity, and the buzz surrounding his auction could not have been greater if he had orchestrated it himself. In fact, according to House & Garden, after attending the spectacular Sotheby’s auction of Andy Warhol’s estate in the 80s, Buatta confided to a friend “I want an auction like this.” And that is precisely what he got!  Just as the 1988 auction catapulted Warhol mania to new heights, the Buatta auction is ushering in a pendulum shift in interior design. After years of hinting at a return, traditional decor is officially back… pretty is back… color is back… and antiques are back!

“Everything Mario stood for is coming back in a big way,” says Whitney Robinson, Elle Decor’s editor in chief (source). “It’s the return of maximalism. It looks like the ’80s: bold decorating, brash colors, fearless design. Mario had a zest for life and for the profession of decorating. His happy, glamorous spirit really comes through in this auction.”

Mario’s iconic George III red japanned bureau cabinet sold for $52,500! It was a focal point of his living room and was filled with 19th century English porcelain cabbages, tulip cups and vases. Image via Emma Bazilian.
The New York Times reported that more than 4,000 people visited Mr. Buatta’s belongings in a week-long, pre-sale exhibit at Sotheby’s in New York. Image Credit…Vincent Tullo for NYT

Furthermore, Mario Mania is catching on with an entirely new generation of admirers… The “Grandmillennials.” A term coined by Emma Bazilian of House Beautiful, Grandmillennials are identified as the mid-20s to late-30s generation, who “have an affinity for design trends considered by mainstream culture to be ‘stuffy’ or ‘outdated’ — Laura Ashley prints, ruffles, embroidered linens…” says the publication… and of course chintz, and needlepoint!

In a 2017 interview I conducted with Mario he told me, “Young people today have no reference. They don’t want Grandma’s furniture, they don’t want anything brown, they don’t want anything old. It’s weird, it’s very weird. I think it will come back, although not as big as it was like in the ’80s when everything was chintz, chintz, and more chintz.”  Mario, you couldn’t have been more right! (Although we ARE starting to see chintz return in a big way!!) It seems only fitting that the man who “shook the world” of interior design would shake it up one last time by igniting a resurgence of the whimsical yet classic style he made famous decades ago. A most fitting final farewell!

A 107-piece set of Dodie Thayer lettuceware sold for $60,000. “Mario liked hiding rabbits in greenery,” said Haleh Atabeigi, Mario’s exclusive painter.  The rabbits sold separately for $6,000. Image via Sotheby’s
These were among 11 needlepoint pillows of animals that sold for $17,500. Credit…Vincent Tullo for The New York Times
A 174-piece set of Buccellati silver and bamboo flatware was estimated at $5,000 to $7,000 but sold for $93,750. (Sotheby’s image via the Washington Post)
A watercolor drawing of Mario Buatta in bed, by Konstantin Kakanias for The New York Times circa 1988 sold for $11,250. It was purchased by Luzanne Otte as a gift for Emily Evans Eerdmans, design historian and co-author with Buatta of the 2013 book Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration.  A dear friend of Mario’s, Emily was retained by Joseph Buatta, Mario’s brother and only heir, to oversee the sale of his estate.

For further auction results and details on the sale (including special videos and features), please visit Sotheby’s. To read more about the historic Mario Buatta auction, please check out the following articles:

And stay tuned, because yesterday the Washington Post announced that on March 13 and 14 and April 23 and 24, Stair Galleries in Hudson, N.Y., will auction “The Collection of Mario Buatta”: 1,400 dog paintings, porcelains, painted furniture and botanical engravings that were not part of last week’s auction.  For ongoing news and information, please follow @emily_evans_eerdmans and @mariobuatta on Instagram.

For a fascinating recap of Mario’s legendary style, you will want to read “Mario Buatta and the English House Style in America.” Guest writer Luzanne Otte provides a summary of the panel discussion hosted by Sotheby’s as part of the events surrounding his record breaking auction.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Wonderful post! Would have loved to have some of those great dog needlepoint pillows and as for me, traditional décor and antiques will never go out of style! Have a great rest of the week! Amy Stritikus

  2. Thrilled that the rest of Mario’s things will be selling right here in Hudson. Maybe I’ll get a second chance at something. And even more thrilled that people “woke up” to good design again. Phew! That was a long dry spell of a vast wasteland of nothing design. Now we are finally home again. I want to lave in beautiful rooms.

  3. What a fantastic tribute to a giant in the world of interior design. I had the pleasure of meeting Mario through work A few times and I loved his zest for life and hilarious sense of humor. I applaud the return of the fabulous traditional style that Mario brought to us. It’s about time! The past decade has been been littered with trendy with short lived throw away ideas, and once the world of design shows how great and relevant traditional decorating can be, The younger generation will get on board. Perhaps the design magazines will become glamorous and fun to read again. Thank you Mario!

  4. Great post !! I have always believed that trends in fashion and decor ( and everything else) is a product of what the french call L’ air du temps that more or less means “the mood of the times” …I have always liked traditional/classic everyhing .so in a way part of me doesn’t want traditional decor to become a “trend “ . As we all know, when something is adopted by the masses , it losses it’s appeal

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