At the end of eight hours of bidding in front of more than 200 people, 1,500 online registrants and 300 viewers on YouTube, it allowed the de Gaulle family to sell all of the 372 lots on offer.
The highest bid went to a LIP watch worn by General de Gaulle (1890-1970) in the 1960s. It set a world record at 537,920 euros for this brand.
Manuscripts, letters, drawings, electric train… The choice was very vast and, according to Artcurial, represented only a small part of the general's legacy to his descendants.
Included were the original edition of “Mémoires de Guerre”, printed especially for de Gaulle and given to his wife Yvonne (76,458 euros), a handwritten letter signed by Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (107,584 euros), or even a missive from Joséphine Baker (26,240 euros).
These memories came from the estate of his eldest son, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, who died at the age of 102 on March 13. “A part” profits will be donated to the Anne de Gaulle Foundation, which welcomes and supports disabled people.
The Ministry of Culture indicated, in a press release on Tuesday, that it had exercised its right of pre-emption on 140 lots “who deserved to join the national collections”.
The major beneficiaries will be the National Archives (67 lots), the Defense Historical Service (30 lots) and the National Library of France (29 lots).
Patrons “provided decisive support to the BnF and the National Archives”, welcomed the minister, Rachida Dati.
The Departmental Archives of the North, which manage the birthplace of Charles de Gaulle in Lille (9 lots), the Army Museum and the Museum of the Order of the Liberation in Paris (3 lots and 1 lot respectively) and the Diplomatic Archives (1 lot) will also get some coins.
“These are very personal writings and memories, and which at the same time constitute exceptional, often unpublished, testimonies of our collective history,” stressed Mrs. Dati.
The sale was accompanied by the exhibition at Artcurial, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, of a document kept by the family: the four leaves of the manuscript of the Appeal of June 18, an exhortation to resistance launched since the BBC antenna in London in 1940.
This exhibition attracted 5,000 visitors in 10 days, Artcurial added.
