Items owned by French cultural icon Brigitte Bardot, including her copy of the Kama Sutra and pairs of her famous ballet flats, went under the hammer in Paris at the Hotel Drouot on Monday. The sale included nearly 300 lots and fetched over 953,000 euros (US$1.09 million) according to an Instagram post by the auction house Millon. Among the items on offer were a number of portraits of Bardot, as well as personal items such as diamond rings and the typewriter on which she wrote her autobiography. Bardot shot to fame in the 1950s and ’60s with performances that tantalized audiences and scandalized moral authorities with raw displays of sexuality, in films such as Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt.” She became a box-office phenomenon in the United States and helped to popularize foreign films with Americans at a time when censorship in Hollywood movies forbade frank discussions of sex, much less nudity. She then gave up on making movies and carved an unconventional path as a fierce advocate for animal rights, before dying in December 2025 at age 91. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the animal rights charity that became her life’s work, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. “The objects presented are those that she particularly loved because they represented her second life,” Ghyslaine Calmels, general director of the foundation, said in a statement ahead of the sale. “Seeing them all together today is not only a chance to discover an intimate part of her life, it’s also about understanding the absolute commitment of a woman who dedicated her life to giving a voice to those that didn’t have one of their own.” Auctioneer Alexandre Millon said the auction house had developed a strong relationship with Bardot and her foundation over the course of three decades. “We are proud to stand under its banner and dedicate our work, our team and our energy to her life’s cause: the defence of animal rights,” he said in the statement before the auction. While the sale has generated considerable interest, Bardot’s widower Bernard d’Ormale has criticized the auction, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. “These are intimate objects,” d’Ormale said. “Why is this auction being held? For the animals? It’s a joke, the foundation owns properties, they only have to sell one of them.” By Jack Guy, CNN
