Paris’ Ritz hotel is auctioning off its five-star furniture.
The Hotel Ritz is selling more than 10,000 pieces of furniture and decorative pieces across 3,500 lots. The items are no longer required following the hotel’s four-year renovation between 2013 and 2016.
Spanning the Ritz’s 120 year history, pieces include the hotel’s first bathtub (valued at $1,500), two sailboats from the “Coco Chanel Suite” ($2,500 for the pair) and a gold sofa from the salon named after Ritz regular Marcel Proust ($1,800).
There is also a barber’s chair valued at $750, a Louis XVI style dog bed estimated at $375, and a set of "his and hers" bathrobes and towels valued at $625.
The auction is expected to make up to $1.9 million.
The sale will have particular cachet with Ritz aficionados as the hotel is the first in the chain – established by Cesar Ritz in 1898.
The $1,250 a night hotel has since became a byword for luxury, and has been frequented by a stunning list of political leaders and celebrities. Ernest Hemingway was a regular, and it was there he learned his wife wanted a divorce. He promptly threw his wife’s photo into the toilet, and shot both photo and toilet.
The Nazi party also established its Paris headquarters in the hotel.
The sale takes place between April 17 and 21 at the Artcurial auction house in Paris.
“Collectors and enthusiasts of 15 Place Vendome will have the unique opportunity to return home with a piece of the Ritz legend during the sale,” says the auctioneer.
Billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed has owned the hotel since 1979. It was from there that Al-Fayed’s son Dodi and Princess Diana dined before being killed in a car accident in 1997.
