I was gifted this beautiful bottle of Taittinger Collection 1988 by a McLaren F1 road car owner in 1995 and it has been kept lying down in my home cellar since. The box and bottle are in great condition only a slight scuff on a corner when moving over the years, can send photos. Will deliver to Cambridge, Bedford, Huntingdon or London maybe some other areas depending on the distance.

IMAI

Toshimitsu Imai was born Kyoto in 1928. After finishing school in 1948, he trained at the Tokyo State Art Academy. Imai's early style of painting is reminiscent of the Fauves. In 1951 Imai was awarded the Kansai-Shinseisaku Prize and in 1952 the prize for the best new artist at the 15th Shinseisaku Salon. After his first solo show in Japan, Imai moved to Paris in 1952 and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Sorbonne.

From 1956 Imai's own work was sold by Leo Castelli in New York and, from 1957, Galerie Stadler in Paris. The success Imai had with his work at the 1953 São Paulo Biennale and the 1960 Venice Biennale brought him international acclaim, followed by recognition at home in 1962: Toshimitsu Imai was awarded a prize at the 5th Exhibition of Japanese Contemporary Art in Tokyo and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo bought several of his paintings. Toshimitsu Imai was awarded numerous distinctions in France and elsewhere in Europe: 1991 he was made an honorary citizen of Madrid, 1992 of Lyon. In 1996 he was made a chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and 1997 an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.