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Someone has way too much disposable income.

To each their own. Not how I would spend $28 million, but whatev.

Fugly is as fugly spends.

Wow, 28 million?! For one chair!? People with money do not always have good taste, I suppose. A piece like this should really be in a museum.

Maybe that big poofy cushion filled with 28 million in cash?

I guess I just don't know what is supposed to be great as far as art goes. I just know what I like and that is why if I saw this left out on the corner, I would walk on by.

Maybe having 28 million in disposable income make you see things in a different way. :)

A welcome counterpoint to all the gloom-and-doom economy news.

This is what happens when the iconic pieces become too common. People just have to seek out something you can't get and throw it in your face with all the money they have.

I can see how this would be quite the curiosity, I am warming up to the design. It looks like it might be comfortable. I bet if they sold something like this at IKEA, people would be all, this would go great with my Billy shelves and Knappa lamp.

sigh. I just don't get it.

To add some sophistication to this post...

It looks like a poop.

It's completely insane. 28 million dollars. Think about that much money. Jeebus.

I'll take 12!

Considering it's age, near-perfect condition, perfect Art Nouveau style, uniqueness and provenance - $28MM doesn't surprise me...

...bearing in mind that the folks who can spend $28MM on such things don't have to concern themselves with how they're going to pay for it.

"I bet if they sold something like this at IKEA, people would be all, this would go great with my Billy shelves and Knappa lamp."

No. This chair is f*cking ugly, period. I wouldn't pay $10, let alone $28m.

that chair has a face only its mother could love.

I want to plop into it just to squish flat that poof of a cushion.

Bepsf, I can see why all the resons you listed would make the chair worth the millions it was appraised at, but I still boggle at the final sale price. Makes me wonder if the reason that cushion is so very poofy is because it's stuffed with greenbacks.

I think that chair is fantastic. If I had an extra $28M lying around, I might be interested in buying it given its famed designer, Eileen Gray, and it's famed owner.

holy mother of moley !! that is unreal !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I bet if they sold something like this at IKEA, people would be all, this would go great with my Billy shelves and Knappa lamp."

"No. This chair is f*cking ugly, period. I wouldn't pay $10, let alone $28m."

I am dead serious. People seem to latch on to the weirdest things. Of course, my first reaction to the reveal was a little bit of nausea, but the more I look at this chair, the cooler it is. The price, no, I didn't win the MegaMillions last night, and I do tend to be frugal anyways. I think if something similar to this, maybe in white canvas with fake lacquer arms came out of Sweden, or came in some purple and gold quilty/tapestry-y fabric from Anthropologie, or was invented by oh, an Eames or a van der Rohe, EVERYONE would want one! I think because it's brown and odd to you now, you're scared. You're scared to like anything about it, and you're scared that if this was common fare at some approved outlet, you'd have 2 of them.

KTG-

No, seriously, its just ugly. And I am having a hard time not vomiting at the idea of someone paying $28 million for ANY chair right now when I am watching my co-workers get laid off left and right.

it's not a chair. it's a unique (as in 1 of 1, not editioned) historical object, with the added history of having been way overbid.

someone with a lot of money has an eileen gray addiction, or wants a collection of the best architect designed furniture of the modernist movement. with what people were/are(?) paying for ron arad limited edition numbered pieces, it shouldn't be as much of a surprise as it seems, and to be so over estimate just means two people (and i mean people as i doubt a museum could justify the expense) wanted it badly, nothing more.

not how i dream of spending money, or decorating, but to each his own.

Yep, I agree with most of the posts here that it's a big pile of ugly. No fluidity or movement to the design, it's just a lump of wood and leather sitting there on the floor. No thanks, I'll take something that's actually attractive and a bit less expensive.

If anyone saw Nip/Tuck last night, maybe it provides some insight...

Somewhere in China, there is a guy running a manufacturing plant thinking, "We can make that for $50.00."

And he'd be right.

ok, I love the chair. I think it's beautiful, unique, organic. granted, I love art nouveau. it's definitely not something that would work in most spaces, and certainly not in a small apartment or hip urban loft, but in the right house (err, mansion) it could be absolutely beautiful. but I guess that's hard to see when you're stuck in the mid-century modern mindset.

I do think, however, that $28mil is a bit much. the estimated selling price was no problem, but I wonder what drove it up so much. perhaps a bit of ego in the competition? however, I much prefer the ultra-rich spending their money on art and historical items such as this than on drugs, it-bags, and private jets. the great art patrons of past years are a dying breed.

Good god that's one ugly chair. I'm astounded at the price, quasi-fame attached or not.

to the defense of the chair (which I actually quite like), if Yves Saint Laurent was still alive and checking AT regularly, he would throw the "fugly" comment to most tours. And that is because his style was totally different.

After having seen pictures of his old house, I can see this chair being absolutely astounding in there, but it needs the right surroundings. It's the same with any art nouveaux, with most ecole de Nancy piece, with Gaudi. If you were to put any MCM that is revered over here in a 13th century castle with huge drapes, bulky oak furniture and golden frame, it might very look as nothing else but a turd.

They could have sent a dozen kids through medical school. Sick.

If George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln all sat in it and John Kennedy did Marilyn Monroe in it, it might be worth a few thousand. As a piece of art, not so much.

"I guess I just don't know what is supposed to be great as far as art goes. I just know what I like..."

If art depended on 'what everyone liked' then Meet The Spartans would be considered a masterpiece.

Apparently, if you add polka dotted pieces of wood to your typical looks-like-a-squatting-fat-guy chair, it's worth a fortune.

Who knew?

I guess he wanted to sit on his assets.

I don't hate the chair. Don't love it. But it's no less ugly than a lot of stuff that gets posted on here. "Attractive" is very much a term of personal style. Right now, all the magazines (and websites, for that matter), are touting "mid-century" as cutting edge and beautiful. When I was growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, we frankly looked on that style of furniture as so incredibly schlocky and tacky that we wouldn't pick it up off the curb when our neighbors went to throw it out. The plywood chairs and "Eames era" orange plastic stuff was what we had in our poverty-stricken high schools, because they couldn't afford to buy better, newer stuff.

There was no rightness to the cyclical round of fashion that called mid-century tacky when it was out of style, and there's no rightness to the round that's brought it back in right now. If someone loves this chair and respects the designer, then it's worth something to the her.

I would never (ever, ever, ever!) spend that kind of money on a chair. Heck, I wouldn't spend $1000 on a couch. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And over the age of 40, you start to see "beauty" just repeat, recycle, and then go out of style again.

Mary

"They could have sent a dozen kids through medical school. Sick" - or - they could have spent the proceeds of the auction on AIDS research, which they did.

hmm, i did a blog post on this chair - i compared it to the cheapest chair i could find.

check it out if you wish.

http://www.reddoorread.blogspot.com/

i love the shape of it but the leather is drab looking.

At least the money went to charity. But the chair is still ugly.