Pierre Berès (18 June 1913 – 28 July 2008) was a Russian born French bookseller, antiquarian book collector, publisher and art collector. He was described as "the king of booksellers" in his '' New York Times'' obituary and as "a legendary figure in the world of art, collecting and publishing" by French culture minister

Christine Albanel Christine Albanel (born 25 June 1955) is a French politician and civil servant. From May 2007 to June 2009, she was France's Minister for Culture and Communication in François Fillon's government. Early career Albanel is agrégé in classica ...

.Grimes, William (August 3, 2008)
Pierre Berès, Tenacious Book Collector, Dies at 95.
'' New York Times''

Biography

Born in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

with the

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

Berestovski or Berestov according to different sources, he grew up in Paris and attended Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He began as an autograph collector and quickly moved to books. His fast rise in the world of bookselling included liquidating collections of financially unstable French aristocrats and American millionaires, including

Mortimer Schiff Mortimer Loeb Schiff (June 5, 1877 – June 4, 1931), sometimes Mortimer Leo Schiff, was an American banker and notable early Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leader. His son, John Mortimer Schiff, was also involved with the BSA. He was also the fath ...

and

Cortlandt Field Bishop Cortlandt Field Bishop (November 24, 1870 – March 30, 1935) was an American pioneer aviator, balloonist, autoist, book collector, and traveler. Early life He was born on November 24, 1870 to David Wolfe Bishop (1833–1900) and Florence Van Corl ...

. He opened a New York branch of his bookstore in 1937, and his Paris shop weathered World War II. He befriended Pablo Picasso after the war. Henri Matisse chose Berès' bookstore to exhibit his "Jazz" series of prints. In 1956 he acquired science publisher Éditions Hermann. He was awarded the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. Rare finds included the manuscript of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's '' Voyage au bout de la nuit'' and Arthur Rimbaud's '' Une Saison en Enfer'' inscribed by the author to Paul Verlaine. In 2005, he closed his bookstore in Paris and sold his collection of 12,000 books, which earned over 35 million euros in a series of auctions. He retired to

Saint-Tropez , INSEE = 83119 , postal code = 83990 , image coat of arms = Blason ville fr Saint-Tropez-A (Var).svg , image flag=Flag of Saint-Tropez.svg Saint-Tropez (; oc, Sant Tropetz, ; ) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence-Al ...

, where he died.

References

Businesspeople from Stockholm 1913 births 2008 deaths Art collectors from Paris Publishers (people) from Paris Burials at Passy Cemetery Swedish emigrants to France {{France-business-bio-stub