The $5.5 Million Garden Album: Empress Josephine’s Botanical Treasure

November 15, 1985

On this day, a phenomenal piece of botanical history changed hands at Sotheby's auction house: Empress Josephine's personal copy of Pierre-Joseph Redouté's (pee-AIR zho-ZEFF reh-doo-TAY) botanical watercolors for "Les Liliacées" (lay lee-lee-ah-SAY) - "The Lilies."

This wasn't just any book of botanical illustrations. This massive work consisted of 468 watercolors on vellum depicting the magnificent flowers from the gardens of Malmaison, St. Cloud, Versailles, and Sevres. Created between 1802 and 1816, the collection was bound in 16 volumes that weighed a staggering 320 pounds.

In one of the fastest high-value auctions ever recorded - just three minutes - the collection sold for $5.5 million to W. Graham Arader, a rare book and print dealer who had organized a syndicate for the purchase. "I feel I got a bargain," Arader declared after the sale. "I feel I have a book that could sell for $20 million."

The sale was remarkable not just for its price (the tenth highest for any work purchased at an art auction house at that time) but also for its opening bid. Sotheby's president, John L. Marion, started the bidding at an unprecedented $5 million - the highest opening bid ever in an art auction.

This treasure had remained in Empress Josephine's descendants' possession until the 1930s when it was auctioned in Zurich. It then made its way to New York through book dealer Erhard Weyhe, whose family trust put it up for auction that November day in 1985.

Arader's innovative approach to the purchase allowed others to share in this botanical treasure. He divided the collection into 100 shares, keeping 30 for himself and selling the rest at $63,250 per share. Each share entitled the holder to select four watercolors, with the order determined by drawing lots.

This remarkable sale reminds us that botanical art isn't just about pretty pictures - it's about the intersection of science, art, and history. When done with the mastery of someone like Redouté, it becomes something truly priceless.