(Photo: Jason Schmidt)

(Photo: Jason Schmidt)

The art-collecting couple that lives in this sleek Fifth Avenue apartment wanted pride of place for the mammoth Protractor, by Frank Stella, that they’d bought at Larry Rubin’s gallery. But the original designer, Paul Rudolph, didn’t approve of the new acquisition, so the owners brought in French decorator François Catroux (husband of the glamorous Betty, muse to Yves Saint Laurent) to finish the job.

Catroux kept the mirrored window treatments but painted the walls deep aubergine, which sets off not just the Stella but a Lichtenstein, a Hans Hofmann, and Gene Davis’s Sour Ball Beat. And, of course, the Warhol portrait. When Andy first heard the couple was moving, he announced, “Well, I am not going to do the portrait until I see the new apartment.” The finished product now hangs in the dining room.

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