Historic silver, crystal and even towels sold at auction by the Paris Ritz hotel were snapped up for a total of 1.7 million euros (US$1.9 million), more than four times the pre-sale estimate, the Artcurial auctioneers said on Tuesday.
About 1,500 lots of bed linen to bathrobes and ashtrays were sold to buyers from 25 countries, after more than 500 people registered online for the luxury sell-off.
The famous hotel on Place Vendome in the French capital was a favorite of icons such as actress Audrey Hepburn, fashion designer Coco Chanel and author Ernest Hemingway, who “liberated” its bar when the Allies retook the city during World War II.
Photo: Reuters
Among the used items on sale, a 12-plate “Marthe service” commissioned by Cesar Ritz in 1898 for the opening of the hotel was sold for 13,000 euros, 45 times the estimate.
Christofle serving trollies also sold well, while champagne buckets brought in up to 11,700 euros, 58 times the auction estimate.
The auction had been originally scheduled to take place in April, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Separately, the cover of a Tintin story that satirized Adolf Hitler’s German expansionism could go for more than 350,000 euros when it comes up for auction in Paris on Saturday.
In King Ottakar’s Sceptre, the boy detective’s Belgian creator Herge was taking a dig at the Nazi leader after his annexation of Austria in 1938.
Tintin and his faithful hound, Snowy, find themselves trying to foil a plot by spies to overthrow the king of the fictional Balkan land of Syldavia.
The cover shows Tintin tripping as he gets out of the plane in Prague and having to grab his new friend Professor Alembick’s beard to right himself.
The drawing is part of a major sale of classic cartoon images at Artcurial auction house in the French capital, which was postponed in March because of the pandemic.
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