Great Collector Jean-Marc Lefèvre, Senior Expert Mr Jean-François Hubert, Vice President of Southeast Asian Art Dexter How, Logistics and Gallery Operations Manager Fiona Braslau and Deputy Chairman, International Director and Head of Department, Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evelyn Lin meeting in Paris, 7 February 2020 before the auction sale A Landmark Collection of Vietnamese Art: The Jean-Marc Lefèvre Collection at Christie’s Hong Kong on 3 December 2020.

Jean-Marc was born into a French family in Saigon 1952, in the midst of the Indochina War. "The Pearl of the Far East", as it was commonly known then, it was the Saigon of historical luminaries such as Graham Greene, Jean Hougron, Lucien Bodard, and perhaps even more so that of Marguerite Duras. Places like Nha Trang and Dalat were holiday resorts for him and his family.

Close to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, is a beautiful Haussmann-style building in an exclusive address where only the very few and lucky are admitted, based on their true interest in Vietnamese painting. Each wall of the elegant apartment is covered with prodigious examples of Vietnamese paintings, harmoniously exhibited as a result of 25 years of careful curating and collecting, including Nguyen Phan Chanh "Les Couturières" (HKD 10,930,000); Vu Cao Dam "Femmes au bain" (HKD 8,050,000) and "Le Thé" (HKD 5,250,000); Mai Trung Thu "La Conversation" (HKD 3,000,000) and “La jeune femme de Hué” (HKD 2,500,000)…

Besides an irrepressible desire for a 'pilgrimage' to his place of birth Vietnam, where he visited twice in 1992 and 1993. The exhibition in Paris, L'Âme du Vietnam under the general curation and scientific direction of Mr Jean-François Hubert in 1996, was where he discovered Vietnamese art, which to this present day fascinates and charms him.