Bardot's Items Sell for Nearly a Million Euros in Paris

Auction house Millon sold 285 items from Brigitte Bardot’s estate in Paris on Monday, September 21, for a sum that far exceeded the initial estimate of around 50,000 euros, AFP reported, with Informer also covering the results of the sale.

The items came from her homes La Madrague and La Garrigue in Saint Tropez, as well as from her Paris apartment. Around 3,000 bidders from France and abroad took part.

Reports differ on the exact final total. AFP put the sum at nearly a million euros. Millon stated on its Instagram account that the total came to more than 953,000 euros. Informer, citing the same figures, puts the amount at 1.15 million dollars, adding that this is almost 20 times the original estimate.

What Sold Best at the Auction

The strongest interest went to:

• a self-portrait by the actress, sold for nearly 40,000 euros
• two dog collars bearing a tag with Bardot’s name and phone number, estimated at just 30 euros and sold for 9,400 euros to a Russian buyer
• the typewriter she used to write her autobiography, sold for 4,634 euros
• two of her guitars, estimated at 300 and 500 euros. The first sold for 8,600 euros, while reports differ on the second: AFP puts it at 11,900 euros, Informer at 1,900 euros
• three plush seals, for a combined total of about 2,200 euros

Who Gets the Proceeds From the Sale?

The proceeds go to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which the actress founded in 1986 to protect animals and which, according to its own website, has cared for 13,000 animals to date, and to her only son, Nicolas Jacques Charrier.

Auctioneer Alexandre Millon told AFP that “Brigitte Bardot has once again shown that she is an exceptional alchemist, she turned around 50,000 euros.” Foundation director Ghislaine Calmel told the same agency that “this sale is a logical continuation of the one the actress organized herself back in 1987.”

Bardot’s Last Husband Called the Auction a Joke

Bardot’s last husband, Bernard d’Ormale, said publicly two days before the auction that the sale was “a joke and a disrespect to her memory.” The foundation responded that the sale had already been approved in June, by d’Ormale himself, when he was still its president.

Brigitte Bardot, an actress who for decades was a symbol of French film and fashion, died last year at 91 in Saint Tropez, where she spent the final decades of her life devoted to animal rights.