Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Christie’s International’s four-day sale of the remaining collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge ended today in Paris, having raised double its estimate.

The auction made 9 million euros ($13.4 million) with fees, against a high forecast of 3.8 million euros based on hammer prices. Proceeds will benefit Saint Laurent and Berge’s charity devoted to research on HIV and AIDS.

The amount was boosted as trophy hunters and dealers fought for memorabilia linked to Saint Laurent. Still, the amount was less than the Saint Laurent 342.5 million-euro sale in February, the biggest-grossing auction of a private collection. About 85 percent of the 1,156 lots were sold in this week’s event, held in collaboration with Pierre Berge and Associates in the Theatre Marigny.

“This success was undoubtedly due to the great number of buyers who were unable to win lots in the first sale and were determined to not leave Marigny without a souvenir of the designer,” Lionel Gosset, Christie’s specialist in charge of the sale, said in an e-mailed statement.

The top price was the 241,000 euros paid today by an Asian collector for a pair of chairs thought to have featured in an Inca-themed ball at the Tuileries Gardens, Paris, in February 1812. These had been kept in Saint Laurent’s apartment grand salon in the rue de Babylone and had been estimated at 7,000 euros to 9,000 euros.

Umbrella Stand

An even more spectacular performance against estimate was achieved by a 20th-century green enameled earthenware umbrella stand. Also offered on the final day of the sale, this climbed to 109,000 euros after being valued at 300 euros to 500 euros. The umbrella pot had been filled with walking sticks in the hall of Saint Laurent’s Paris home.

The most expensive of the small group of works of modern art on offer was Fernand Leger’s 1950 gouache-and-black-ink drawing, “Les travailleurs au repos” (“Workers at rest”), which sold for 181,000 euros against a high estimate of 70,000 euros.

A total of 1,200 clients registered to bid at the auction, said Christie’s. Many were attracted by some of the more personal items, such as Saint Laurent’s enamel-and-gilded-metal Cartier alarm clock. This sold for 3,500 euros, more than double the high estimate.

Hermes Suitcases

A lot containing three of the designer’s Hermes crocodile suitcases sold for 29,800 euros against an estimate of 4,000 euros to 6,000 euros.

A group of 14 porcelain-and-glass statuettes of French bulldogs -- Saint Laurent’s favorite breed -- reached 2,750 euros against a low estimate of 400 euros. Moujik IV, last in a line of bulldogs owned by the couturier, had been an honorary guest throughout Christie’s presale view.

Saint Laurent’s last car, a black Mercedes Benz S Class 350L, was one of five lots withdrawn from the sale. It had been expected to fetch as much as 50,000 euros.

The first two days of Christie’s YSL II sale consisted of furniture and works of art taken from Chateau Gabriel, the couple’s Proustian coastal retreat near Deauville in Normandy.

The last two days included remaining items from their apartments in Paris not offered in the February sale.

First Sale

The first Saint Laurent sale, held at the Grand Palais in Paris in February, exceeded a low estimate of 200 million euros, based on hammer prices. Thirty thousand visitors queued for up to four hours to view that presale exhibition, said Christie’s.

The event made headlines when a leather “dragons” armchair made by Art-Deco designer Eileen Gray sold for 21.9 million euros ($28 million). Two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, plundered by foreign troops in the 19th century, were declared sold at 31.4 million euros. Cai Mingchao, the Chinese dealer who placed the winning bid, later refused to pay. Christie’s total for the YSL Part I auction doesn’t include the Chinese bronzes.

“The issue has not yet been resolved,” Christie’s said in an e-mail statement in response to questions about the bronzes.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

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(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

Last Updated: November 20, 2009 14:25 EST