Besotted Bardot fan to net small fortune at Parisauction of star memorabilia

PARIS, Sept 28 (AFP) – More than 200 people packed a Paris auction house on Tuesday for the sale of thousands of objects tracing the career of French screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose 70th birthday coincided with the event.  

Some 8,500 posters, photographs, magazine covers, postcards, books, records and other items belonging to 61-year-old Dutch collector Cees Storm went under the hammer at the Drouot auction house.  

Television crews from Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia jockeyed for position with buyers hoping to take home a piece of the BB myth.  

Among the items up for sale were original posters from the 1956 film “And God Created Woman”, which made Bardot an international star, and from the 1963 movie “Le Mepris” (Contempt), now difficult to find on the memorabilia market.  

Storm fell in love with Bardot at age 15 and collected items related to her life for 45 years, combing book stalls along the Seine for rare documents and even travelling to Saint-Tropez, where “And God Created Woman” was filmed.  

Auctioneers Chayette and Cheval had estimated the total value of Storm’s collection at EUR 80,000 (USD 98,000), but auction house sources said the final total could be much higher.  

A series of Elle magazines with Bardot on the cover dating from 1949 to 1953 was sold for EUR 413, while a photo from the 1958 film “En Cas de Malheur” (In Case of Adversity) sold for EUR 472.  

Storm says he will donate some of the proceeds to Bardot’s animal rights foundation.

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