MONTREAL -- A Montreal auction house was forced to cancel the highly publicized sale of items that purportedly belonged to Halle Berry because the Hollywood star didn't even own them.
Lawyers representing Berry notified the Montreal Auction House on Saturday demanding it cancel Sunday's scheduled event.
"This morning (Sunday)....the auction house cancelled the auction," said a statement issued by Berry's legal team.
The auction house posted an apology on its website and said the items actually belong to Gabriel Aubry, Berry's Quebec's ex-boyfriend.
They will now be put up for sale on July 21, a delay it attributed on a prerecorded phone message to "legal reasons."
On its website, the auction house said none of the objects have any association with Berry.
"No items were used by her, nor were any items provided by her or any agent of hers for the auction," it said.
"We apologize to her, and to the public, for the error. All goods were and are the property of Mr. Gabriel Aubry only."
A call to the auction house for further explanation was not immediately returned.
The objects include a pair of nail clippers, a hairbrush, a queen-sized bed, an antique sofa and a zebra skin rug.
Berry, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, owned a condo in Old Montreal and a country place in the Laurentians region north of the city.
Patrick Blaizel, who runs the auction house, said Saturday there had been a lot of interest from collectors, with inquiries coming in from around the world.
"I have no idea what was done with the objects," he said.
"All I know is that I picked them up. What was done with the object is the secret of God."
The items were on display at the auction house Saturday and attracted a steady stream of visitors. Not everyone was aware they once belonged to the Hollywood star, however.
Cindy Romanick drove in from the Laurentians to take a look at the items, though she said she was more interested in the wall hangings than the fact they once belonged to Berry.
She said decorative masks were particularly enticing but worried the prices might get pushed too high.
"It might be too expensive for nothing just because it's hers, so we'll see," she said.
"I'm interested to see how much the bed goes for."
Bidding begins at 1 p.m. Sunday and bids can be placed online through the auction house's website, www.infoencans.com.
