2024-12-17 07:34:00
Artcurial’s sale of private souvenirs of General de Gaulle far exceeds estimates.
The success of the auction dedicated to Charles de Gaulle exceeded all expectations. The event organized on Monday 16 December in Paris by the Artcurial house totaled 5.6 million euros, more than five times the estimates which amounted to one million.
Watches, a toy soldier he played with as a child, a dagger, his school notebooks, an identity card… It is an eclectic collection of objects belonging to General de Gaulle which has been put up for sale after being preserved for decades by his son, Admiral de Gaulle, who died this year at the age of 102.
A half million euro watch
The 372 lots put up for sale have all found buyers. The best-selling one was a Lip watch, former possession of General de Gaulle, sold for 530,000 euros. Others flew away; in particular his military identity card, estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 euros, which ultimately sold for more than 60,000 euros.
135 lots were the subject of pre-samples – when the State intervenes to acquire an asset which it considers to be of historical interest – by the BNF, the National Archives, the Archives du Nord, the Ministry of the Armed Forces or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .
Correspondence with Churchill
Among the collection put up for sale there was also a notebook of stories written at the beginning of the 20th century, when Charles de Gaulle was 14 years old, in which he already saw himself as a general fighting against the Germans. An imaginative story that begins in 1930 and will never be finished. Artcurial also offered trades with Winston Churchill and Joséphine Baker.
And among these objects, a treasure so precious that it was not put up for sale: a manuscript of the appeal of 18 June 1940. Two double-sided sheets accompanied by a note from Yvonne de Gaulle, his wife: “This manuscript was given to me by general in London on June 19,” he wrote. “He said to me: ‘Keep these manuscripts carefully. If I succeed, they will be part of my children’s legacy.'”
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