Savoy hotel to auction off furniture and art ahead of renovation
When the Savoy opened in 1889 with state-of-the-art facilities — including hot running water in every room — most visitors were impressed. There was one notable exception. “What is it good for?” wrote Oscar Wilde. “If I want hot water, I call for it.”
Nonetheless, the hotel was determined to remain one step ahead of its visitors’ tastes. Now it is renovating once more — and its classic furnishings are up for sale.
Luxury furniture, celebrity portraits and historic opera scores are among thousands of lots from the Savoy to be auctioned next month.
The hotel has remained tight-lipped about the plan for the new suites. An announcement in August said: “The Savoy has also confirmed a refurbishment of rooms and suites as part of a continued commitment to invest in the property and ensure the best experience for guests. This has commenced and is to be done in stages to have little to no impact to the operational running of the hotel. The first new rooms and suites will be revealed in August 2025.”
However the items for sale shed some light on what the hotel wishes to replace. More than 3,000 lots are listed, including 1,371 pieces of furniture, 344 works of fine art, 92 textile items, including curtains and other soft furnishings, and a mix of decorative art and collectables.
One of the suites under renovation is named after the soprano Maria Callas. Traces of her time at the Savoy are up for sale: a framed portrait of Callas and a framed copy of the score for the opera Anna Bolena. Callas’ 1957 performance of the tragedy in two acts, composed by Gaetano Donizetti, is considered one of the highlights of her career.
Another print up for sale depicts the Lyceum Theatre in London on March 21, 1817, when it hosted an exhibition of the writer and inventor Adam Walker’s eidouranion — a type of solar system model which is the ancestor of the modern planetarium.
The Monet suite at the Savoy is one of the suites being refurbished
A portrait of Katharine Hepburn presumably originates from the Hepburn suite. A hotel review described the rooms as “filled with photographs, portraits and sketches of the actress, as well as memorabilia collected during her stays”. The portrait, like all the lots, has a starting bid of £5 and shows the actress wearing a wedding dress made for the film The Philadelphia Story.
The furniture available includes pieces by the Italian luxury designer Francesco Molon. As well as the Savoy, his furniture has graced the Ritz-Carlton in New York and the Palazzo Portinari Salviati in Florence. Molon’s work is also linked to President Putin, who oversaw the costly restoration of the Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg — a project highlighted on the designer’s website. Wardrobes, benches, side tables and cabinets from Molon are available.
“The Savoy is synonymous with luxury, with history, with prestige, with lifestyle,” said a spokesperson for Pro Auction, which is running the sale. “This event offers enthusiasts from around the world the chance to take part in the auction sale and acquire a little bit of the Savoy’s magic.”
The auction comes at the conclusion of another significant refurbishment for the hotel. The Thames Foyer, a glass-domed atrium where the famous Savoy afternoon tea has been served for over a century, reopened under the new name of Gallery this weekend.
A portrait of Charlie Chaplin, a fan of the Savoy, will feature in the upcoming auction
The final afternoon tea was served under the glass dome in August, and the hotel has described Gallery as “a true all-day destination”, where “comfortable leather seating invites guests to linger, while striking chandeliers and low-level table lighting create a warm and welcoming ambience”.
Register to bid online here before the sale on 11-12 December. Viewing by appointment at the Savoy 10am-2pm on December 10.
Auction highlights
The Savoy hotel is a byword for golden-age glamour (Katrina Burroughs, Interiors Editor writes). The 135-year-old institution has contemporary devotees from Prince William to Rihanna. Taylor Swift used the Royal Suite — rumoured to be her favourite room in London — as a location for the video for End Game. Next month, you can sprinkle some grand hotel stardust on your own home by bidding on furniture from the Savoy’s signature suites at auction, as furniture, lighting and art are sold off to make way for the next phase of the hotel’s renovation. The bulk of the 3,237-lot catalogue is culled from suites named after famous fans Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Claude Monet, Noel Coward and Katharine Hepburn.
It’s a massive inventory, to be sold on December 11-12, so which are the lots to look out for? Monet painted some of his best known masterpieces while staying at the hotel in the early 20th century, so his namesake suite is filled with homages to his greatest hits. Lot 788 consists of two pictures after Monet’s famous Houses of Parliament and Charing Cross Bridge. An Italian sofa from the sitting room looks likely to be an excellent buy. Donghia couches can cost five figures, so the starting price of a fiver for this settee sounds like a potential steal. All opening bids are £5, but remember to factor in the 22 per cent buyer’s premium and sales tax to the final hammer price.
Lot 504, a Georgian Chippendale-style Donghia camelback sofa
There are, fittingly, some rather fabulous curtains drawn from the Noel Coward suite — the signature suites cost from £2,950 per night, but the two pairs of fully lined, swagged and passementerie-trimmed pencil pleat drapes, potentially worth three nights’ stay, may fetch less than a gin sour in the American Bar. Look up the cost of lined curtains and rejoice that they — like every lot in the auction — will be offered without reserve, meaning that however low the highest bid is, when the hammer falls, it’s a sale.
Curtains from the Noel Coward suite
Lot 522, a framed and glazed print of Winston Churchill, will be very popular with people who like that sort of thing, but the best investments in the sale will be furniture and lighting of the kind of quality that a venerable hotel demands and regular homeowners can rarely stretch to. Lot 1464 is a wool and silk rug designed by Neisha Crosland and made by The Rug Company. New, the 244 x 305cm rug would cost you £14,140.
A framed and glazed print of Winston Churchill
The beauty of this smart sale is that, aside from the brag of buying from a historic institution frequented by Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, and Muhammad Ali, there is also the opportunity to bag a bargain.
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