Yves Saint Laurent's Paris pad up for sale

PARIS, Nov 16, 2010 - Yves Saint Laurent's longtime partner Pierre Berge is selling the apartment they shared in Paris' swish seventh district up until the couturier's death in 2008, the Berge foundation said Tuesday.

Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent

Spread over 520 square metres (5,600 square feet) around a courtyard garden planted with century-old trees, the vast split-level flat on the Rue de Babylone is offered for around 23 million euros (31 million dollars), the foundation told AFP.

The couple lived in the south-facing flat from 1970 until Saint Laurent's death on June 1, 2008, lining its walls with masterpieces of art and design that Berge auctioned off last year in what was dubbed the sale of the century.

According to the ad on the Emile Garcin real estate website, the flat boasts "a magnificent living room with generous proportions," along with a dining room, a music room, four bedrooms, a library and two professional kitchens.

The record-smashing February 2009 auction of the pair's 700-item art collection netted 342 million euros (491 million dollars).

A subsequent sale of belongings from the couple's other homes, including their country hideaway on the Normandy coast, last year fetched some nine million euros.