The auction of items connected with the monarchy took place in the castle of Versailles, ie symbolically on the site that was the seat of the royal court of Louis XVI and his wife, daughter of the Czech Queen Maria Theresa. Marie Antoinette and the French monarch were executed by guillotine in 1793 during the Great French Revolution.
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According to the owner of the auction house, Jean-Pierre Osenat, the queen probably wore a white slipper in the current size of 36. It is a high-heeled shoe made of silk and goatskin with an ornament in the front. Queen Henriette Campan’s court lady gave it to her friend at the end of the 18th century, and her descendants then passed it on to the family.
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“This auction comes at a time when the French are facing uncertainty about their values and many of them are clinging to history … Marie Antoinette is a person who arouses the interest of the whole world,” Osenat said before the auction.
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A mirror was also auctioned in Britain over the weekend, which, according to the East Bristol Auctions auction house, also belonged to Maria Antoinette. It sold for 10,000 pounds (almost 300,000 CZK).
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