Amsterdam: auction record for royal objects

As the hammer fell at Sotheby's in Amsterdam, record sums were paid for articles and works of art belonging to kings, queens or ancient families and which have become cult objects.

1,500 lots were auctioned. They included five pairs of glasses belonging to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, which were sold for 4,560 euros a pair, a Bavarian console table of circa 1725 for just over 300,000 euros, and an ivory model of a sledge pulled by swans, which belonged to Louis II of Bavaria, sold for 236,000 euros.

The total proceeds from the auction in Holland came to 6.8 million euros against the 3.5 million estimated by Sotheby's specialists. These items are sought after not only by antique dealers, but also, and above all, by collectors from Europe and America, or even Russia, Turkey and Israel.