Marie Antoinette's silk shoe auctioned for over $51,000 in Versailles

A white silk shoe belonging to last French Queen Marie Antoinette was auctioned on Sunday, November 15, for over $51,000 (43,750 euros). The sum was four times more than it was expected to sell for, the auctioneers said. The 22.5 centimeter-long (8.8-inch) shoe with a 4.7 cm heel is roughly equivalent to a European size 36 and is adorned with four ribbons and in good condition, apart from the slight wearing of the silk, the Osenat auction house said.

Osenat further said that with international collectors showing strong interest, the price for the shoe quickly raised from the reserve of about  $9,450 to $11,800 (8,000 to 10,000 euros) and in the end was bought by an unidentified buyer. The sale took place in Versailles -- the town west of Paris that was once home to France's royal court -- where, from her arrival at the age of 15, Marie Antoinette enjoyed a lavish lifestyle.

During the French Revolution, the priced shoe of France's last queen before the 1789 event, is believed to have ended up in the hands of Marie Emilie Leschevin, a close friend of the queen's head chambermaid. Leschevin's family held on to the shoe for generations before it came to auction 227 years after her death, according to reports.

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About Marie Antoinette

Infamous as 'Madame Deficit' for her nonchalance over the plight of her subjects, Marie Antoinette was born an Austrian archduchess and was the wife of Louis XVI. She was beheaded during the Terror in 1793, nine months after her husband Louis XVI who was deposed during the 1789 revolution. Legends have it that the indulgent royal advised the starving French peasants, who could not even afford bread, to "eat cake" instead.

Last year an exhibition at the Conciergerie, the former Paris prison where the queen was incarcerated before execution, retraced changes in the representation of the country's last queen through paintings, films, mangas and even Barbie dolls. Meanwhile, over the year, the Versailles Palace, including the Grand Hall of Mirrors and its grounds, has remained a major tourist attraction.

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(Image - Osenat auction house)