Christie’s sells the Argentine collection led by Meissonnier’s Louis XV silver tureen, a former world record for silver, across two live auctions at King Street.
Christie’s sells The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection at Christie’s King Street in St James’s on Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 December 2026. Part I offers 50 masterpieces, and Part II about 280 further lots.
Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier (1931 to 2020) formed the collection with her husband, Carlos Pedro Blaquier (1927 to 2023). Christie’s describes it as Argentina’s largest private collection.
She began collecting silver under the dealer Jacques Helft and lent widely to museums. In 2010 the Frick Collection honoured her at its autumn dinner.
The sale is led by a Louis XV silver soup tureen by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, commissioned by the 2nd Duke of Kingston in the 1730s. Sold as a pair at Christie’s Geneva in 1977, the tureens set a world auction record for silver. Its twin is in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The tureen is estimated at £4,000,000 to £6,000,000. Around it sit gold snuff-boxes, Limoges enamels, Italian bronzes, Old Master paintings and French 18th-century furniture.
The collection is on view at King Street from 23 November to 1 December, and the sale forms part of Christie’s Classic Week in London.