Brigitte Bardot's personal belongings have sold for nearly €1m (£858,000, US$1.15m, A$1.61m) at auction in Paris — almost 20 times the pre-sale estimate, according to the auction house Millon.

The sale comprised 285 objects. The lots ranged from straw hats, sunglasses and nightgowns to tableware and furniture drawn from Bardot's homes in Paris and Saint-Tropez, Agence France-Presse reported. Dog collars, guitars and self-portraits were also among the items offered.

Bardot, the French film star who became an animal rights activist, is directing the proceeds toward causes close to her life today. The money raised will go to her animal welfare foundation and to her son.

The result signals the enduring commercial pull of one of French cinema's most recognizable figures. Personal effects belonging to celebrities of the 1950s and 1960s generation continue to command sums far beyond conventional valuations, and the Millon sale — with its near-twentyfold overrun of the estimate — sits squarely in that pattern.

The breadth of the inventory contributed to the auction's appeal. Buyers could bid on intimate wardrobe pieces and domestic objects alike, each carrying the provenance of Bardot's residences in the capital and on the Côte d'Azur. Such items, tied to a specific star and specific homes, carry a premium that standard memorabilia often cannot.

For Bardot's foundation, the near-€1m total represents a substantial windfall, one that converts the material residue of a film career into funding for animal welfare — the cause that has defined her public life since she left cinema.

Millon, the Paris house behind the sale, confirmed the final figure. The auction's scale — 285 lots spanning clothing, instruments, art and furniture — makes it one of the more comprehensive dispersals of a single French film legend's estate in recent years.

The outcome suggests the market for Bardot memorabilia remains strong, and future sales of comparable material from her generation of stars are likely to be watched closely by collectors and auctioneers alike.