Lessons in Luxury: Putting on The Ritz at home, with The Ritz Paris auction

John O'Ceallaigh
Updated
The Windsor Suite at The Ritz Paris in 1980. Furniture from this era of the hotel's history will be available for sale at the forthcoming auction
The Windsor Suite at The Ritz Paris in 1980. Furniture from this era of the hotel's history will be available for sale at the forthcoming auction

‘Everything must change for everything to be the same” may sound like fortune cookie mumbo-jumbo, but when the Ritz Paris reopened in 2016 following a top-to-tail renovation, the hotel’s mantra provided some clarification to  return guests faced with a conundrum: why, after a four-year closure and a rumoured cost of $450 million (£322 million), did things seem so familiar?

Fresh coats of paint and gently spruced-up interiors meant rooms felt that bit brighter; although somehow rejuvenated, suites remained classically styled – the changes hardly seemed drastic. Still, Ritz guests don’t need to be told that the best cosmetic surgery is designed to go unnoticed; while the property’s surfaces were gentle retouched, its innards were completely rewoven. Tech was modernised, water pressure sorted and air-con future-proofed – all unglamorous but essential undertakings for a hotel that had opened in 1898, in a palatial old pile that dated back to the early 18th century.

The present-day Coco Chanel Suite at the renovated Ritz Paris hotel
The present-day Coco Chanel Suite at the renovated Ritz Paris hotel

So, after I’d checked in last week I  wore a bathrobe in the same vibrant peach that greeted the first hotel guests – the colour flattered the complexion, insisted Marie-Louise Ritz, the wife of founder César Ritz. My bathroom still featured a golden tap shaped like a swan , kitsch but endearing; and service, as ever, was discreet and assured.

One of the most significant changes, though, relates to what is absent. When the hotel closed, its contents were put in storage. About 80 per cent have been returned. The remainder, alongside other pieces removed during renovations past, will be auctioned in Paris from April 17 to 21.

Putting on the Ritz at home, with lots from the hotel's Artcurial auction
Putting on the Ritz at home, with lots from the hotel's Artcurial auction

In total, the sale will offer some 10,000 individual objects spread across 3,500 lots. It’s a huge undertaking, but Artcurial, the Paris-based auction house facilitating the sale, has form. It arranged similar events for Parisian grande dame hotels including Hôtel de Crillon, which earned €6 million (£5.3 million. There’s good reason to believe this more extensive sale from the more historical Ritz will surpass that figure.

I get a sense of how comprehensive the offering is when auctioneer Stéphane Aubert shows me some of the trove. After admiring paintings, sofas and fabrics spanning a chronology of lavish decorative styles, I’m momentarily disturbed by a sinister, life-sized Santa ClausFather Christmas, ambivalent about a white piano and dismissive of a Louis XVI-style dog bed, which apparently belonged to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Three bar stools from The Ritz Bar, expected to achieve in excess of €1,500 at the auction
Three bar stools from The Ritz Bar, expected to achieve in excess of €1,500 at the auction

More to my liking is the idea of hosting a Ritz cocktail party at home. Minibars are listed at €400 to €600; three stools from The Ritz Bar will start at €1,500; and countless sets of glassware are embossed with Ritz Paris insignia. I imagine casually inviting guests to sit on a duo of floral-print Louis XV-style Chesterfield chairs (€800 to €1,000). “Oh, these old things? I picked them up in Paris; they used to be in the Coco Chanel Suite at The Ritz.”

It’s a nice fantasy, and the property’s peerless heritage means intense competition for the most coveted lots is likely. But before they are dispersed forever, Artcurial will offer all and sundry a bit of Ritz magic fleetingly. From April 12 to 16, a free exhibition will precede the auction, with three storeys of Artcurial’s listed Champs-Élysées headquarters transformed into approximations of The Ritz using furniture from the auction.

The Ritz Paris auction: the treasures for sale in picture

And of course, after the auction ends, The Ritz will remain. While I disliked its “must-visit” Hemingway Bar – too touristy – it’s otherwise a class act. And even if they’re wealthy enough to buy whatever pieces they wish, the hotel’s most committed guests will still need to return to the hotel to enjoy its breakfast of freshly baked pastries, silken hot chocolate like melted ice -cream and French toast as sweet and spongy as a fresh soufflé.

For more on April’s exhibition and  auction see artcurial.com; rooms at The Ritz Paris starts at €1,000/£885 (ritzparis.com; 0033 1 4316 3030); Eurostar fares from London to Paris from £58 return.

Lessons in Luxury