Luxury furniture auctioned off by the legendary Ritz hotel in Paris

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: 7.3 million euros ($9 million), a world record in the industry…

riz5They 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 euros from a furniture sale while Plaza Athenee made 1.4 million euros. 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 euros for a pair of tablecloths to 10,000 euros for a pair of nymph sculptures carrying bronze candelabras that used to decorate the lobby.

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 Mohamed Al-Fayed since 1979, the hotel had accumulated impressive quantities of objects since it was opened in 1898 by Cesar Ritz.

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It has served as the backdrop to several key moments in French history.
The Nazis requisitioned it during World War II but had cleared out by the time Ernest Hemingway burst in with a group of Resistance fighters on August 25, 1944, gun in hand, to "personally liberate" it.

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Realising he was too late Hemingway took to the bar where he is said to have run up a tab for 51 dry Martinis.

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.

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Marion & Nicole - Design

My name is Marion. I fell in love with interior design when I was 18, rummaging through the Flea Market for unusual objects to decorate my apartment. I turned this into my profession, becoming a personal shopper for often foreign, clients looking for the best of what the capital has to offer. As for me, it’s different. I went to a school of design and then opened my own boutique in Paris. A photo-shoot for a decoration magazine led to our intense meeting. Whether the 50’s or Empire, art of the table or floral arts, our tastes and skills are complementary. The result is always incredibly super-Parisian!

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