"Let them eat ... my shoe?" The slipper went for a far higher price than the Osenat auction house expected. But the tens of thousands of dollars for the ribbon-laden slipper was nothing compared to her jewelry's worth.
Advertisement
A slipper owned by France's last queen before the 1789 revolution, Marie-Antoinette, sold for €43,750 ($51,780) at a French auction house on Sunday.
The sale took place in the town of Versailles, which was once home to the French royal court. Marie-Antoinette lived there from her arrival at the age of 15. Her family held on to the slipper for generations before it went to the Osenat auction house 227 years after her execution.
The slipper was expected to go from €8,000 to €10,000 on the auction block, but international interest pushed the price to more than four times that.
Record prices for Antoinette's jewelry
01:30
This browser does not support the video element.
The shoe was 22.5 cenimeters (8.8 inches) long, heeled, roughly equivalent to a modern European size 36. The shoe was topped with four ribbons and in good condition, with just slight wear on the silk, according to the auction house.
Several items of Marie-Antoinette's jewelry went to auction two years ago and fetched tens of millions of dollars.
Marie-Antoinette, an Austrian duchess at birth, was the wife of King Louis XVI. They were executed in 1793, during the Reign of Terror.
Marie Antoinette's jewels up for auction
Pearl necklaces, diamonds, and a ring containing Marie Antoinette's lock of hair were auctioned off in Geneva by Sotheby's. French royals smuggled the jewels out of Paris after the revolution.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/F. Augstein
Reemerging from history
After 200 years in private ownership, jewels once worn by Marie Antoinette were auctioned off in Geneva. Each jewel in the collection is "absolutely imbued with history," said Daniela Mascetti of the Sotheby's auction house.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/F. Augstein
Marie Antoinette, a French queen from Austria
The famous queen was born in Vienna as the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I. She married the French heir apparent Louis Auguste in 1770, at the age of 14, and became the queen of France four years later. With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Marie Antoinette was put under house arrest, and eventually executed in 1793.
The pearl and diamond pendant
This natural pearl and diamond pendant sold for a whopping $36 million (€31.8 million), setting a record for the sale of a pearl at auction. Experts initially believed that the 26 by 18 millimeters (1 by 0.7 inches) pearl would fetch between $1-2 million. The pearl is one of ten items in the collection once worn by the French queen.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Augstein
Royal tour
Among other items, the collection also contained a diamond brooch and a pair of Marie Antoinette's earrings. The jewels have been displayed in Hong Kong, New York, Munich, London and other venues across the world.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
Rose diamonds and a strand of hair
The diamond ring, monogrammed MA for Marie Antoinette, contains a lock of the queen's hair. All of the displayed items are currently held by the Italian royal House of Bourbon-Parma.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
Back in family hands
In the aftermath of the 1789 revolution, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette made plans to flee the country. In preparation, the queen put her jewels in a wooden chest and sent them off to Brussels, where they then passed to the Austrian emperor. The escape plan failed, but the queen's last surviving child, Marie Therese (pictured) was freed in 1795 and managed to retrieve the treasure.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Crown jewels
Sotheby's also offered items owned by other historic figures, such as the diamonds which once belonged to Marie Antoinette's friend and brother-in-law Charles X of France. The precious stones were only made into a tiara in 1912.
