Art: Versailles in Manhattan

"I always had it in my soul," Rene Fribourg once said, "to love French 18th century things. It is true that my bedroom is Napoleon I, and my wife's bedroom is Charles X, but most of the rest is 18th century. I love Louis XV and Louis XVI." Until his death at 83 in January, only guests to the white stone Fribourg mansion off upper Fifth Avenue ever saw his big collection of furniture, art objects and painting; now it is to be knocked down at auction. Peter Wilson, suave chairman of the world's biggest auction house. Sotheby's of London, was...

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