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Le Gavroche: Wine valued at £12,000 per bottle to be auctioned

Christies Le GavrocheChristies
Wine, champagne and artwork will all be sold at auction

Rare wines, vintage champagne and art from Michel Roux Jr's recently closed two Michelin-starred London restaurant Le Gavroche are to be auctioned.

The sale will also include porcelain, silver and decorative objects from the Mayfair restaurant.

Le Gavroche was founded by brothers Michel and Albert Roux in 1967, and in 1974 it became the first restaurant in the UK to earn a Michelin star.

It closed in January after more than half a century of service.

Roux Jr said he wanted to spend more time with his family and concentrate on other business ventures.

Getty Images Le GavrocheGetty Images
Le Gavroche pictured in 1974, the year it became Britain's first Michelin-star restaurant

Bottles of 2013 vintage Domaine de la Romanee-Conti grand cru, a sought-after Burgundy wine, are expected to reach between £9,000 and £12,000 when they go under the hammer in April, according to auction house Christies.

A painting of a fictional street urchin from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Miserables, after which the restaurant is named, is estimated at £10,000 to £15,000, while bidding will start at £1,000 for the illuminated sign that hung above the restaurant door.

Christies Le GavrocheChristies
Bidding for the sign from over the door will begin at £1,000

Roux Jr said the restaurant's wine cellar had been "lovingly curated for decades" and that the artwork was "of significance to the Roux family and familiar to everyone who has eaten at the restaurant since we first opened".

Famous chefs who have worked there include Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Monica Galetti.

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