The Ritz Paris Is Selling Its Historic Furniture
Countless stars, royals, and brilliant minds have called the The Ritz Paris home, and while most of us can’t afford to live in such posh digs, you can soon purchase part of the iconic hotel’s decor.
The hotel has enlisted auction house Artcurial to sell 10,000 pieces of furniture and “objets d‘art” that no longer suit its decor after its recent $400 million renovation, overseen by interior designer Thierry Despont.
The pieces will go on exhibition from April 12-16 in Paris before the sale from April 17-21.
Highlights from the auction include a gilded bed on which Audrey Hepburn lounged in Love in the Afternoon, salon sofas from French writer Marcel Proust’s retreats at the hotel, and bar stools from Ernest Hemingway’s reign in the hotel bar now named after him.
According to Hotels of the Stars, Hemingway took credit for “liberating” the bar and the aforementioned stools from the Nazis during WWII, and then (perhaps more believably) ran up a tab of 51 martinis with his crew of Resistance fighters. Hemingway spent many other nights in that bar perched with his pals, including F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Other famous guests include Coco Chanel, who lived in a second-floor suite from 1937 until her death in 1971, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who spent her last living hours at the hotel before her tragic death in 1997.
The auction also includes chandeliers, vintage bed linens, bathrobes, rugs, statues, art, and many other icons of French luxury and antiquity from the Ritz.
Don’t worry about the hotel losing its historic charm with the sale of these antiques. About 80 percent of the previous classical furniture and period paintings were kept and restored, according to a press release from the auction house.