Nine months after the passing of iconic French actress and cultural figure Brigitte Bardot at age 90, hundreds of her personal belongings from three of her former residences are going under the hammer at a Paris auction this Monday, with all net proceeds after costs directed to the animal welfare foundation she founded decades ago.
Organized by French auction house Millon, the sale features nearly 300 individual lots pulled from Bardot’s two coastal homes in Saint-Tropez and her central Paris apartment. To give visitors a immersive look into her daily life, auction curators have recreated portions of her living spaces at the Drouot sale rooms in central Paris, where thousands of fans and collectors have already turned out in the days leading up to the auction to view the one-of-a-kind collection.
Unlike high-profile celebrity auctions that often focus only on red carpet gowns and award memorabilia, this sale centers on the intimate, everyday items that traced Bardot’s full life journey, from her early days as a trained ballerina to her decades as one of the world’s most prominent animal rights activists. Highlights range from small everyday objects to deeply personal mementos: two pairs of iconic black leather Repetto ballet flats, which Bardot helped popularize as everyday wear after working with the brand to adapt their dance shoe design; the manual typewriter she used to type personal correspondence and draft her autobiography; two classical guitars; her well-worn Peugeot bicycle; diamond and gold jewelry; Le Creuset cookware; kitchen utensils; religious statuettes; cigarette lighters; and even her personal annotated copy of the Kama Sutra. The collection also includes dozens of original portrait paintings of Bardot, many gifted to her by the artists; though she never hung them in her homes to avoid looking at her own image daily, she kept every piece for decades.
Many lots in the collection also reflect Bardot’s lifelong, all-consuming passion for animal welfare, the cause that defined her post-acting life. A large number of dog collars that belonged to her own pets, as well as a collection of well-loved stuffed animals, are included in the sale. Frank Guillou, Bardot’s personal secretary for decades, shared that animals were the center of her world: “Brigitte could not live without animals around her. When one of them died, she was totally wiped out with grief. They were all buried according to a strict protocol in the gardens, and their photographs had pride of place in her homes.”
Starting prices for most lots are set below €100 (£86), making the collection accessible to casual fans as well as high-end collectors, but auction officials expect bidding wars to drive final prices far above these opening estimates. Cecile Dupuis, a representative from Millon, notes that the auction draws a unique audience of people who share two of Bardot’s core legacies: admiration for her cultural impact, and commitment to animal protection. “The room will be full of all these fans,” she said. “It is for all those people who still live with her memory and who keep her cause alive.”
Guillou echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that every item in the sale carries a unique piece of Bardot’s story, both as a global icon and as a private woman. “Each item on sale bears the trace of an encounter, an involvement, a moment of happiness, a stage of her life,” he explained. “They tell the story of the woman as well as the legend.”
Bardot, who rose to fame as a model and actress in the 1950s, remains one of the most consequential female cultural figures of the late 20th century, widely remembered as a global emblem of modern femininity and the 1960s sexual revolution. After retiring from acting in the 1970s, she dedicated her life to animal rights advocacy, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. Her legacy remains complicated, however: in her later years, she faced repeated fines and public backlash for inciting racial hatred and making homophobic public statements.
Under the terms of Bardot’s will, her estate was split between her animal foundation and her only son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, who will also receive a portion of the proceeds from the auction.