PARIS (AFP) — Hundreds of would-be buyers crammed one of Paris' grandest hotels Friday as the Royal Monceau auctioned off its minibars, mirrors, and the rest, ahead of a year-long revamp by star designer Philippe Starck.
Estimated at 200 euros (315 dollars) each, wood-panelled minibars emblazoned with the hotel's prestigious "RM" emblem sold like hotcakes, fetching an average 550 euros each as auctioneers sold off the contents of the seven-storey hotel's first three floors.
Closed down last Sunday, the four-star hotel -- a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe -- reopens in the autumn of 2009, revamped by Starck who, the management said, "has never done the whole of a hotel in France."
But first one million euros worth of furniture and bits and pieces are to be auctioned over several days until June 22.
Among the 2,360 batches for sale, Saturday's linen is expected to be a top-seller, said auctioneers Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr. On Friday bedlamps set at 100 euros a pair fetched nine times the estimate.
"It's sad to see all this go," said one of the hotel maids, though the left-leaning Liberation newspaper described the fittings and furniture as "a deluge of bad taste."
For less than 100 euros there are curtains, prints, ice buckets and dishes. For 200 to 300 euros, bathrobes, dressing tables, chests and bar stools.
Among more expensive pieces are an 18th century commode estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 euros and a Louis XIV-style marble table worth between 25,000 and 30,000 euros. But there are also marble statues, mosaic mirrors from an Indian palace and even a garden tent in metal and glass.
On June 26, select guests are to join a performance-style VIP "Demolition Party" to wreck and smash whatever is left.
Proud of its stylish French ways, the 265-room Royal Monceau, opened in 1928, has played home to many a distinguished guest -- Ernest Hemingway, Walt Disney, Joseph Kessel, the Aga Khan, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Robert de Niro.
New owner Alexandre Allard, a 39-year-old billionaire Internet entrepreneur who acquired the hotel in 2007 with backing from Qatar company Barwa Real Estate, "decided to change everything" to the tune of 100 million euros, the management said.
The new decor will be "art deco revisited" to titillate the tastes of a younger and more family-oriented though still cash-credible set.
Rates currently vary from 460 euros a night a room to 1,650 for a suite or 7,000 for the royal suite.
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