It is being described as the biggest art collection ever to go under the hammer. The masterpieces amassed by Yves Saint Laurent, the French fashion icon who died last month, are expected to fetch up to £250m when they are sold early next year.

Many of the works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Léger, Brancusi and de Chirico inspired Saint Laurent’s catwalk creations.

His art collection, to be auctioned by Christie’s in February in Paris’s Grand Palais, also includes ancient Roman works, Renaissance statues, paintings by Ingres, Goya and Warhol, art deco furniture and silver. It is being sold by Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s business partner and companion.

While Christie’s would not give any details about the collection, an expert who has seen it described it as “simply extraordinary, one of the most beautiful art collections in the world”.

The auction will be held in association with Bergé’s own auction house, Pierre Bergé & Associates. Proceeds of the sale will go to the Paris foundation Saint Laurent and Bergé created together to preserve his work.

The auction is expected to dwarf the last record-setting single-owner sale, that of works owned by Victor and Sally Ganz, which netted £104m at Christie’s in 1998.

“We now learn that Saint Laurent moved stealthily to become one of the biggest buyers in the most overpriced sector of the art market - paintings from 1900-25, which cost £5m to £25m each,” said Godfrey Barker, an art-market expert.

The auction will be a test for the art market, locked in a boom of spiralling prices since 2005. Ian Peck, head of Art Capital Group, in New York, warned earlier this month, before the Saint Laurent auction became known: “It would take only one or two major pieces to do poorly for a chain reaction to be triggered. It’s a very neurotic market.”

Times Recommends

• LA profits from Michael Jackson stimulus
• Berlusconi's absent wife causes G8 headache
• Chimps that took a punishing step for Man