An auction of Brigitte Bardot's personal items fetched nearly €1m (£858,000, US$1.15m, A$1.61m) in Paris on Monday - roughly 20 times the original estimate, because nothing says "intimate personal legacy" quite like a bidding war conducted by 3,000 strangers.
The sale, handled by the auction house Millon, featured 285 objects spanning straw hats, sunglasses, nightgowns, tableware, and furniture from Bardot's homes in Saint-Tropez and Paris. The French screen legend died in December at 91, leaving behind a foundation, a son, and an estate that apparently included enough sunglasses to outfit a small Mediterranean principality.
Proceeds will go to Bardot's animal welfare foundation and to Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, her only child. Founded by the actor in 1986, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation reports it has taken in 13,000 animals through four shelters and 150 partner facilities, supports 350 groups in France, and operates in 70 countries - a legacy that, unlike the straw hats, cannot be priced at auction.
Auctioneer Alexandre Millon described Bardot as "a remarkable alchemist" who "transformed about €50,000 in estimates into nearly €1m including fees." Which is one way to put it. Another way: people will pay extraordinary sums for objects that once belonged to someone famous, a phenomenon economists have yet to fully explain and probably never will.
Case in point: two dog collars with an ID tag bearing Bardot's name and a telephone number, estimated at €30 for the pair, sold for €9,400 to a Russian buyer. A self-portrait fetched nearly €40,000. The typewriter she used to write an autobiography raised €4,634. Two guitars, estimated at €300 to €500 each, soared to €8,600 and €1,900. Three stuffed toys representing baby seals sold for nearly €2,200.
The sale drew 3,000 registered French and international bidders, all apparently eager to own a piece of a woman whose most enduring public role in later years was yelling at French authorities about animal rights - a cause she pursued with considerably more fervour than most people pursue anything.
"This sale is the logical continuation of the one she herself organised in 1987 with her most precious belongings to create her foundation," Ghyslaine Calmels, managing director of the Bardot Foundation, told AFP. "Today, her fight continues through this auction."
Not everyone agreed. Two days before the auction, Bardot's last husband, Bernard d'Ormale, attacked it as a "joke." "These are personal items," he said. "Why hold this sale? For the animals?" He called it a "disrespect to Brigitte's memory" and told AFP her belongings should have been preserved as part of her legacy, adding that Bardot "would not have agreed to this sale."
The foundation rejected the criticism, noting the auction had been approved by the board in June - when d'Ormale himself was its president. D'Ormale said he hadn't understood the auction would involve such personal items, which is a bold defence given he was, at the time, running the organisation.
The dispute comes days after d'Ormale was removed as head of the foundation, a role he had held since Bardot's death. So the auction raised nearly €1m for animals, the family got its share, and the widower got a lesson in reading board meeting agendas more carefully. Bardot, one suspects, would have had thoughts.