By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
Straw hats. Sunglasses. Nightgowns. A pile of guitars and self-portraits. Ordinary things, until you learn whose hands held them.
An auction of personal belongings from Brigitte Bardot, the French film star who became one of the world's most prominent animal rights activists, brought in nearly €1 million (£858,000, roughly $1.15 million) in Paris — almost 20 times the pre-sale estimate, according to auction house Millon, as reported by Agence France-Presse.
The sale included 285 objects in total, ranging from dog collars to tableware and furniture pulled from Bardot's homes in Paris and Saint-Tropez. The proceeds will go to her animal welfare foundation and to her son, according to the Guardian's report on the sale.
Bardot, now 91, largely stepped away from acting decades ago to devote herself to animal rights advocacy, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986. The auction's result suggests that devotion — and the public's fascination with the woman behind it — hasn't faded with time.
No further financial breakdown of individual lot prices was available at time of writing.
— If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian, citing Agence France-Presse.
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