Nearly €1 Million for Brigitte Bardot’s Personal Belongings as Her Legacy Goes Under the Hammer in Paris

Personal belongings belonging to legendary French actress Brigitte Bardot have sold for nearly €1 million ($1.15 million) at a Paris auction, fetching almost 20 times their initial estimate. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for animal welfare and to her only son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, The Guardian reports.

Auction house Millon put 285 items from the actress’s homes in Saint-Tropez and Paris up for sale, ranging from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to furniture and tableware. Bardot died in December 2025 at the age of 91.

Interest in the auction was enormous, with around 3,000 buyers from France and abroad registering to bid. According to auctioneer Alexandre Millon, the lots had initially been valued at around €50,000 but ultimately brought in nearly €1 million including fees.

Among the most unexpected lots were two dog collars with tags bearing Bardot’s name and telephone number. The pair had been estimated at just €30, but a Russian buyer paid €9,400 for them.

A self-portrait by the actress sold for nearly €40,000, while the typewriter she used to write her autobiography fetched €4,634. Two of her guitars sold for €8,600 and €1,900, despite being valued at just €300–€500. Three stuffed baby seal toys sold for nearly €2,200.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which the actress founded in 1986, says that over the years it has helped place around 13,000 animals through four of its own shelters and 150 partner organizations. Today, the foundation supports around 350 groups across France and operates in 70 countries.

“This sale is the logical continuation of the auction she organized herself in 1987, when she put her most valuable possessions up for sale to create the foundation. Today, her fight continues thanks to this auction,” said the foundation’s CEO, Ghislaine Calmels.

However, ahead of the auction, the actress’s last husband, Bernard d’Ormale, criticized the sale, calling it a “joke” and “disrespectful to Brigitte’s memory.”

“These are personal belongings. Why hold this sale? For the animals?” he said, adding that Bardot’s possessions should have been preserved as part of her legacy and that the actress herself “would not have agreed to such a sale.”

The foundation rejected the criticism, stressing that the auction had been approved by its board of directors in June, when d’Ormale was still serving as president. He said he had not understood that such deeply personal items would be included in the sale.

The dispute erupted just days after d’Ormale was removed as head of the foundation, a position he had held since Bardot’s death.