Christie's has sold a group of more than 400 books, paintings, letters and other items from personal collections of French writer Victor Hugo and his descendants for 3.2 million euros ($4.2 million), the auction house said in a media communique.
The items included photographs, furniture and personal objects related to the life of Hugo, his son Charles, grandson Georges and great-grandson Jean. The collection was initially estimated at 1 million euros ($1.3 million).
The auction attracted bidders from 12 countries, including the Victor Hugo Museum in Paris and the National Library of France.
The most expensive lot was Victor Hugo’s drawing entitled Souvenir de Belgique (Memory of Belgium). Estimated at between 50,000 euros and 80,000 euros ($65,000-105,000), was sold to an unidentified European art gallery for 409,000 euros (some $540,000). The drawing, which perhaps evokes the memory of a Flemish landscape, was painted by Hugo in the 1850s.
