247-Year-Old Antoinette Guitar Auctioned... Estimated Price 110 Million KRW

Guitar Gifted by Husband Louis XVI
Aquit Official Praises "Excellent Preservation Condition"

Capture of the catalog from French auction house Agut

[Asia Economy Reporter Bora Lee] The guitar of Queen Marie Antoinette (1755?1793), who died during the French Revolution, is expected to be auctioned.

The British daily The Times reported on the 5th (local time) that the French auction house Agut will put this guitar up for auction on the 9th, with an estimated winning bid of up to 80,000 euros (about 110 million won).

According to the report, this guitar, made in 1775 by Parisian string instrument craftsman Jacques-Philippe Michelot from spruce and rosewood, is intricately decorated with mahogany and ivory and was a gift from her husband Louis XVI.

The queen gave this guitar to Louise Elisabeth de Rochemont, Marquise de Rochemont, a peer friend with whom she usually enjoyed music at the Petit Trianon, a small palace within the Palace of Versailles.

Born in Austria, Marie Antoinette, a pianist and harp player, is said to have also enjoyed playing the guitar, a popular instrument at Versailles at the time. Court memoirs from the 1780s record operas and concerts performed by the queen together with the Marquise de Rochemont.

The Times explained that the guitar was preserved at the Rochemont family’s country house after the Marquise de Rochemont passed it on to her nephew upon her death in 1835.

The estimated auction price is up to 80,000 euros (about 110 million won), and it is expected to attract much interest from museums as well as private collectors.

A representative from Agut, the auction house conducting the sale, evaluated, "It is truly an excellent instrument. The formality and intricacy are special, and its preservation state is outstanding."

Meanwhile, Marie Antoinette, who was expelled from the palace along with her husband Louis XVI during the French Revolution in 1789, ended her life on the guillotine in 1793 following her husband.