Auction of Hanover art fetches $53 million

Over 20,000 works owned by family of Princess Caroline's husband

	A Sotheby's employee of notes the price of a painting in a catalogue in Hanover, Germany.
Stefan Haehnsen / AP

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updated 12:31 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2005

BERLIN - A 10-day auction of antiques and artworks owned by the family of Prince Ernst August of Hanover has closed, netting about $53 million — more than three times the original estimate.

The family put more than 20,000 items on sale in the auction, which began Oct. 5 at their Marienburg palace in Hanover and ended Saturday night. The proceeds are to be used to restore the neo-Gothic palace.

Sotheby’s auction house originally forecast that the sale would raise $14.5 million, but said after the sale ended that it brought in about $53 million.

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The objects were selected by the two sons of Ernst August, the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. The sons, Ernst August and Christian, gathered the furniture, weapons, jewelry, costumes and paintings from Marienburg’s attic and cellar.

Many of the objects date from the 17th and 18th centuries, when members of the family ruled Hanover.

Sales began briskly on Oct. 5, with a triptych by a student of Lucas Cranach going for $217,400. Other items included a historic Russian military uniform that sold for $423,800 last Friday — more than 20 times the initial estimate.

A pair of imperial-era vases from St. Petersburg, Russia, originally valued at up to $906,000, fetched $2.04 million.

The elder Ernst August, 51, is a distant relative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and a great-grandson of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II. He is descended from one of Germany’s oldest noble families.