E-1027, part 2
February, 1999

Last fall, Herman and Hans Hertzberger started an action to preserve Villa E. 1027 designed by Eileen Gray (see news clipping). Many reactions were written in the guest book that was opened for the occasion. A large number of writers feel that the French or the Irish government should purchase the villa. Some are of the opinion that when the professional community finds it such an important object, they should raise the money and buy it themselves. In the past months we have received more information about the Villa and her history. Thus E.1027 part 2.

Gray designed the villa, the garden and the interior as a related artwork. She even considered the wall paintings put up by Le Corbusier at the end of the 1930’s as a destruction of her artwork. After her death in 1976 the house was sold with the original interior to a Swiss architect, who later sold it to Peter Kaegi, a Swiss businessman. At the end of the 1980’s he gave Stefen Hecker and Christian Müller, then students at the ETH Zürich, permission to stay in the villa for a few weeks to do research. This research resulted in a virtual reconstruction of the house. A detailed model of the house and the interior. The model is interactive and has several layers so background information about certain elements can be retrieved. This information consists of prints of original photos, sketches and drawings. The model still exists but was made with an, in the mean time, out of date program so special software is needed to look at it.

interior E-1027

At the Sotheby’s location in Monaco the auction of 29 pieces of furniture designed by Eileen Gray took place on October 13, 1991. Those were original pieces and prototypes originally from the Villa E.1027. Kaegi decided to sell the pieces to be able to finance a restoration of the villa. DOCOMOMO tried to prevent the loss of the collection as a whole, but in vain. The furniture was sold to different organisations and private parties. As a rule Sotheby’s normally never gives out information about the buyers. DOCOMOMO however has convinced Sotheby’s that the furniture has scientific value, and they were willing to provide a list of the different buyers, so for research the location of the different pieces can be determined.
The owner of the villa has, as known, not used the money for a restoration of the villa. DOCOMOMO fights zealously along diplomatic ways to prevent the further deterioration of Villa E.1027. And with success it seems. Wessel de Jonge, secretariat of DOCOMOMO, reported that the owners of the villa, the family of Kaegi who died in 1996, are negotiating with two parties about the sale of the house. One of the parties is the municipality Roquebrun-Cap-Martin. And even though several French organisations want to place the Villa on a monument list, this procedure will not start until the house has been sold.

Marina van den Bergen