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Martin van Meytens (Swedish/Austrian, 1695-1770), Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Maria Antoinette) at age 12. Collection of Schonbrunn Palace.

Marie Antoinette’s silk slippers sell for $82K at auction

Martin van Meytens (Swedish/Austrian, 1695-1770), Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Maria Antoinette) at age 12. Collection of Schonbrunn Palace.
Martin van Meytens (Swedish/Austrian, 1695-1770), Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Maria Antoinette) at age 12. Collection of Schonbrunn Palace.

PARIS (AFP) – A pair of silk slippers believed to have been worn by Marie-Antoinette, the wife of French monarch Louis XVI, sold at auction for 62,460 euros ($82,025) here on Wednesday.

The size 36-and-a-half (six) slippers, green with ornate pink bands across them and featuring a silk bow, had been expected to sell for between 8,000 and 10,000 euros.

Marie-Antoinette, best known for her “let them eat cake” remark about hungry protestors during the French revolution, was given the slippers by a member of her court, Alexandre-Bernard Ju-Des-Rets, in 1775.

That was 18 years before she died at the guillotine in the terror that followed the revolution.

A small piece of fabric said to come from the last dress the Austrian-born royal wore before being imprisoned sold for 6,121 euros, twice the estimated value.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE


Martin van Meytens (Swedish/Austrian, 1695-1770), Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Maria Antoinette) at age 12. Collection of Schonbrunn Palace.
Martin van Meytens (Swedish/Austrian, 1695-1770), Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Maria Antoinette) at age 12. Collection of Schonbrunn Palace.