Brigitte Bardot auction in Paris fetches nearly €1m, with proceeds going to her animal welfare foundation and her son

An auction of the French screen legend Brigitte Bardot’s personal items fetched nearly €1m (£858,000, US$1.15m, A$1.61m) in Paris on Monday, almost 20 times the estimate, according to the auction house Millon.

A total of 285 objects ranging from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to tableware and furniture from Bardot’s homes in Saint-Tropez in south-eastern France and Paris generated tremendous enthusiasm, Agence France-Presse reported.

Bardot died in December aged 91. The proceeds from the auction will go to her animal welfare foundation and to Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, her only child.

Founded by the actor in 1986, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation says it has taken in 13,000 animals through four shelters and 150 partner facilities, supports 350 groups in France and operates in 70 countries.

Some 3,000 French and international bidders registered for the auction.

“Brigitte Bardot has once again proved to be a remarkable alchemist: she transformed about €50,000 in estimates into nearly €1m including fees,” said the auctioneer, Alexandre Millon.

Two dog collars, with an ID tag bearing Bardot’s name and a telephone number, estimated at €30 for the pair, were sold for €9,400 to a Russian buyer.

A self-portrait fetched nearly €40,000 while the typewriter she used to write an autobiography raised €4,634.

Estimated at between €300 and €500, two of her guitars soared to €8,600 and €1,900, while three stuffed toys representing baby seals sold for nearly €2,200 .

“This sale is the logical continuation of the one she herself organised in 1987 with her most precious belongings to create her foundation,” Ghyslaine Calmels, the managing director of the Bardot Foundation, told AFP after the sale. “Today, her fight continues through this auction.”

But two days before the auction Bardot’s last husband, Bernard d’Ormale, attacked it as a “joke”.

“These are personal items,” he said. “Why hold this sale? For the animals?” He said it amounted to a “disrespect to Brigitte’s memory”.

Her belongings should have been preserved as part of her legacy, he told AFP, adding that Bardot “would not have agreed to this sale”.

The foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction had been approved by the board in June when the widower was its president.

D’Ormale said he had not understood the auction would involve such personal items.

The dispute comes days after he was removed as head of the foundation, a role he had held since Bardot’s death.