Ritz smashes record with furniture sale
The famous Paris hotel sold off all 10,000 pieces of furniture and decor for €7.3 m
Luxury furniture auctioned off by the legendary Ritz hotel in Paris sold for €7.3 million ($9 million), a world record in the industry, auction house Artcurial said Saturday.
The Paris hotel, home for a while to Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust and Coco Chanel, sold off all 10,000 pieces of furniture and decor.
They included stools from the Hemingway Bar, a 19th-century bathtub, and sofas and a harp from the Proust Lounge.
The Ritz sale outperformed other hotels around the world, the auction house said.
In 2013 in Paris, Hotel de Crillon made €5.9 million from a furniture sale, while Plaza Athenee made €1.4 million.
The 3,400 lots that were up for grabs were on sale between April 17 and 21.
Buyers bid on objects ranging from velvet security cordons and curtain ties, to rugs, bedframes and sets of bathrobes and slippers embroidered with the Ritz insignia. Price estimates ran from €100 for a pair of tablecloths to €10,000 for a pair of nymph sculptures carrying bronze candelabras that used to decorate the lobby.
“The Ritz has excited a sudden passion, attracting buyers from all over the world,” auctioneer Francois Tajan told AFP.
The Ritz decided to sell the pieces from its famous Place Vendome address when it reopened in June 2016 after four years of extensive renovations.
Owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohammad Al Fayed since 1979, the hotel had accumulated impressive quantities of objects since it was opened in 1898 by Cesar Ritz.
Princess Diana’s legacy
In 1997, tragedy befell the hotel when Britain’s Princess Diana, who had been staying there, was killed in a car accident in a Paris tunnel while being pursued by paparazzi.
The hotel made global headlines again in January, when robbers armed with guns and hatchets ransacked jewellery shops on the ground floor, making off with over four million euros ($4.9 million) in gems and watches.