Brigitte Bardot’s 285 personal belongings were expected to bring about €50,000 at a Paris auction; instead, they fetched €953,531, nearly 20 times the estimate, as her widower criticised the sale

French actress and singer Brigitte Bardot‘s personal items have fetched about €1 million at auction in Paris. The amount is almost 20 times the estimate, according to the auction house Millon. A total of 285 objects, ranging from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to tableware and furniture from Bardot’s homes in Paris and Saint-Tropez, were auctioned, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.Two dog collars, with an ID tag bearing Bardot’s name and a telephone number, estimated at €30 for the pair, were sold for €9,400 to a Russian buyer. A self-portrait fetched nearly €40,000 while the typewriter she used to write an autobiography raised €4,634. Estimated at between €300 and €500, two of her guitars soared to €8,600 and €1,900, while three stuffed toys representing baby seals sold for nearly €2,200.About 3,000 French and international bidders registered for the auction. “Brigitte Bardot has once again proved to be a remarkable alchemist: she transformed about €50,000 in estimates into nearly €1m, including fees,” the auctioneer Alexandre Millon said.Bardot, who died in December 2025 at the age of 91, later transitioned into an animal rights activist in her career. She became famous through the film “And God Created Woman,” in which she played a woman who confidently embraced her desires. This was considered scandalous at the time and therefore fascinated many viewers all the more. Until the early 1970s, Bardot appeared in approximately 50 films. She was one of the most photographed women in the world at that time.In 1973, Bardot gave up her acting career and dedicated her life to endangered animals. She auctioned off parts of her possessions to establish her animal welfare foundation. She also became increasingly active politically on the far right, alienating some fans in her later life with her hardline views on immigration. Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, particularly about Muslims, and up until her death she expressed her pleasure at the rising share of the vote gained by the anti-immigration National Rally party.The proceeds from the auction will go to her animal welfare foundation and to Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, her only child. Founded by the actor in 1986, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation says it has taken in 13,000 animals through four shelters and 150 partner facilities, supports 350 groups in France and operates in 70 countries.“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-Bock, the managing director of the Bardot Foundation, told AFP after the sale. “Today, her fight continues through this auction.”

A ‘joke’ that turned wrong

Two days before the auction, Bardot’s last husband, Bernard d’Ormale, described it as a “joke”. “These are personal items,” he said. “Why hold this sale? For the animals?” He said it amounted to a “disrespect to Brigitte’s memory”. Her belongings should have been preserved as part of her legacy, he told AFP, adding that Bardot “would not have agreed to this sale”.The foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction had been approved by the board in June when the widower was its president. D’Ormale said he had not understood the auction would involve such personal items. The dispute comes days after he was removed as head of the foundation, a role he had held since Bardot’s death.