50 - The Plaza Athenée on the auction block

THE PLAZA ATHENEE, Paris

Everything for sale, from the chandeliers to the pillowcases

The Plaza Athenée has just joined a line of famous Parisian hotels to shut down for an unlimited duration in order to rebuild and renovate and redecorate from head to foot.  Before completely closing its doors, the Plaza A. announced it would put everything (or just about) up for auction.

  Brenda and I were there bright and early for the first day’s viewing.  No special idea of buying anything, just another aspect of my hobby to be explored.  It was fun having the run of the place, exploring the backstairs and looking through some of the suites throughout the hotel.

In addition to the more predictable chairs and sofas and beds and tables and flowerpots, there was an unexpected concièrge’s letter box, several sleek red hotel bicycles and a few shiny chrome toilet paper dispensers awaiting the highest bidder.

We have had occasional contact with the hotel’s Relais Plaza Grill, and I was interested in seeing some of the things I knew well from that restaurant.  I had long admired a couple of very special art-déco-style vases which stood in the vestibule leading to the grill room. 

Favorite vase, it was not meant to be!

If we could have acquired just one of them, that might have made an extra special memento.   On closer examination, however, the degree of Hollywood-style make believe became increasingly obvious.  

Seen as a whole, everything blends together into a superbly chic creation which in turn becomes the personality of a grand hotel.  However, taken as individual items, the faux semblant is everywhere.  Everything is imitation, much like décors in a theatre or on a Hollywood backlot. 

When we enquired about the black and white vases we had fancied, we were a bit taken aback to discover they were in fact incorporated into the large sideboard they had adorned, so they couldn’t be removed … or stolen!  If we had really wanted the vase, we would have had to purchase the massive piece of furniture onto which it was permanently attached.  

Waiting for the doors to open the day of the sale

For the auction sale, itself, only the grandest address would do.  Although the pre-sale exhibit was conducted at the hotel, the sale was entrusted to the Artcurial auctioneers who have their sale rooms in a sumptuous 19^th century private mansion at the foot of the Champs-Elysées.  Visiting the auction house was even more glamorous than was strolling through the hotel.

  I liked the idea of acquiring a momento of the Plaza A., and of the multitude of things to go under the hammer, many of the pre-sale estimates were low.  Experience has taught me, however, you can never count on where auction prices might go.  In the case of a grand hotel sale, just about everything is a copy of something else.  That is, furniture and bric-a-brac are all of style-Louis XVI or style art-déco or style art-nouveau, but nothing is its own original contemporary era.  As a consequence, there is little intrinsic value to anything, all estimates take into account that the interest of potential buyers is generally sentimental and often one of passion.  So prices go where they go, and that can be sky high.

The auction house was almost more elegant than the hotel

This was indeed the case.  We had spotted a handsome statuette of a 1920’s style horse, which we had long admired in the restaurant’s entryway.  It was evaluated at 400 euros (which was already more than one would have generally thought of paying).  We got a little carried away, pooled our resources, and thought maybe about pushing it to 550 euros. 

Alas, the stylized, silvered bronze horse (which measured 13 inches high) sold for almost 4,500 dollars, plus another thousand in auction fees!  Needless to say, not to us! 

The last we'll ever see of our little horse!

Your input is welcomed:  hotel-musings@hotmail.fr

[Photos are mine, unless otherwise credited]

CROSS REFERENCING … a look at other postings

The Plaza Athenee was also featured in blog No. 33, "Breakfasts in the 1970's," and No. 44, "The Best and the Worst," and No. 45, "End of the Season Au Revoir"  (to access, click on above titles).