Another auction season brings another prized Les Lalanne sculpture to the block. On 9 December, a trio of Francois-Xavier Lalanne's famously fluffy sheep will arrive at Christie's New York carrying an estimate of $3 million to $5 million, headlining the house's Anthology of Design sale of more than 100 pieces drawn from a single, unnamed collection spanning a century of French and American design.

The woolly flock, which can double as chairs for the intrepid sitter, has a distinguished exhibition history. It all began with the sheep for Lalanne: in 1965 he and his wife Claude presented a flock of 24 sheep at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in Paris, winning admirers including Yves Saint Laurent and Gunter Sachs. Two years later, the trio now heading to auction appeared in his first American show at the Art Institute of Chicago. Christie's global co-head of design Daphne Riou noted how rarely an intact flock comes to market, emphasising that these three always belonged together and were not assembled artificially.

Sheep are synonymous with Lalanne's practice and a fixture of his buoyant auction market. In April, two sheep — previously owned by Saint Laurent — sold separately at Sotheby's New York for $2.3 million and $2.4 million, each doubling its high estimate and setting a record for the model. According to the Artnet Price Database, the record for a flock stands at $5.7 million, or about $8.3 million adjusted for inflation, paid at Christie's New York for an assembly of 24 in 2012. The overall record for a Les Lalanne work is the $31.4 million achieved for Hippopotamus Bar (1976) in late 2025.

Other highlights of the December sale include a pair of outdoor marble bird armchairs by Lalanne at $200,000 to $300,000, a table by Charlotte Perriand first shown in 1930 at $600,000 to $800,000, and a rare 1941 bicycle by Jean Prouve at $60,000 to $80,000. The Anthology of Design exhibition will travel to Tokyo in early November, then to Paris and New York ahead of the December sale.