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Estimated at more than 30,000 euros, a torch from the Grenoble Olympics will be auctioned

A torch from the 1968 Grenoble Olympic Winter Games will be auctioned at the end of February. This torch, one of the last hand-made, is estimated between 30,000 and 50,000 euros.

There are 33 copies worldwide, one of which goes on sale on February 27. A torch from the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics risks unleashing passions among collectors during its auction in Vannes (Morbihan). This official torch of the 10th Olympic Games is estimated between 30,000 and 50,000 euros.

It was until now kept by the family of a member of the organizing committee of the Grenoble Games, can we read on the site Interenchères. And few Olympic torches like this end up at auction. “Some have been broken, others have disappeared, a few are in museums. But very few end up in the auction house”, explains Me Jack-Philippe Ruellan, the auctioneer at Telegram. Inspired by Antiquity, the torch features a copper sheet structure with, at the top, the three official Games badges designed by Roger Excoffon.

It is one of the last hand-made torches before the mass production of Olympic torches. It was transported by more than 5,000 torchbearers over more than 7,000 kilometers, from the ruins of the temple of Hera in Olympia to the Olympic cauldron in Grenoble, before the official opening of the Winter Olympics on February 6, 1968, there is 53 years old.

These Olympic torches always panic the auctions. They recall the golden age of skiing, winter sports and their big names: Jean-Claude Killy, Alain Calmat or Daniel Robin. A private collector bought one for $ 225,000 in the United States in the summer of 2019. And the year before, another torch that carried the Olympic flame went for 202,240 euros, more than four times its high estimate. at the time.

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