Financially I can afford not to work but my mind cannot stop

“Financially I can afford not to work, but my mind cannot stop. I’m doing 27 projects at the moment – planes, hotels, yachts and houses.”But as soon as the sale is over he will make time to visit the auction houses and shops once again. I don’t have a specific place where I buy things, it just depends where I am when something catches my eye. I know exactly what I want and it doesn’t take me three hours to make my mind up in the shop.” Yet Pinto is so busy working that he rarely has time to shop. It’s all about a new beginning.”The bird was bought on one of Pinto’s lightning shopping trips “I’m an impulse buyer and very fast.

“I love it very much and everyone who comes here always asks after it But I am selling it because that is part of the game. “This house and its collection give the inescapable impression of the home of an `old soul’, a man who has lived many lives,” he says. “One is instantly transported back in time to the home of a mid-19th century gentleman who has inherited wonderful treasures.”One of Pinto’s favourite treasures is a 19th-century enamelled silver cockatoo, from the Palace of Maharadjah Udaipaur. He likes to arrange objects with complementary shapes and colours into a form of still-life tableau, and then to move around as the mood takes him.Phillips Hathaway, head of the European furniture department of Sotheby’s New York, which is holding the sale, believes Pinto’s apartment is one of the most breathtaking he has seen since he entered the art world 20 years ago. My ideas come from the movies, reading and travelling.”Pinto’s red, gold and warm earthy colours are derived from Morocco’s spice markets. It depends on the architecture of the house and the style of the owner I try to give people what they want. I can swing from the Thirties to the 19th century and back to modern.

Pinto sees the room as a decadent baroque grotto, an Ali Baba cave. The green and gold sofa is one of his own designs and was inspired by Coco Chanel’s rooms at the Ritz.His inspiration comes from anything and everything he sees around him, according to mood “I am very eclectic. The walls are decorated with languid frescoes and the bedhead is covered in sharkskin.After one of Pinto’s sumptuous dinners, his guests are encouraged to move into the adjoining fumoir, an ornate gold-panelled room decorated with dozens of French Palissy-style majolica dishes emblazoned with lizards, snakes and eels. Here he has created the muffled comfort of a grand hotel suite. His immense bedroom is large enough to provide a drawing room and work area.

Close friends are offered the Cocteau suite, with its collection of plates painted by the writer. It’s another reason for wanting a change, perhaps I will use more rooms.” At the moment, Pinto spends most of his time in his private wing. “Of course clients see it, but it’s still my home and I’ve never sold anything from here to my clients.”"It is very large – one of the best buildings in Paris, you know – and naturally, because I live alone, many of the rooms are not used much, but that is the way of many big houses. For the busy ones he will give back their homes, decorated to their taste and his, and even supply monogrammed towels, sheets, napkins and flowers in their vases.”Although Pinto frequently entertains prospective clients, he denies that his apartment is a showroom “It’s absolutely my home,” he insists. The Countess Jean-Charles de Ravenel, a client and close friend, says: “His greatest talent is understanding his clients’ needs.