BERLIN – All strictly white underwear: corsets, bras, T-shirts that left the neck bare to wear necklaces over dresses, very warm cotton socks. It is the fabulous collection that belonged to the mythical Sissi, the unhappy and melancholy young empress of Austria and Hungary, often misunderstood by the Habsburg court in Vienna and betrayed by her husband Francesco Giuseppe. Everything has been found in the romantic castle of Gödöllö, in Hungary, which for Sissi was a favorite residence, a place for horseback riding and other sports, a meditative refuge away from the gossip of the court. Now the auction house Hermann Historica, Bavarian like Sissi’s origins, is putting everything up for auction. At prices that in the end will be astronomical: just for 3 pieces of linen you start from a thousand euros.
There are 28 items of laundry in all. Everything was excellently preserved in a quality wicker case adorned with an eloquent gold plaque: “Her Imperial and Royal Majesty the Empress Elisabeth”. This, as is known, was her first name, but it is with the nickname Sissi that she remained in history, and immortalized in the cinema interpreted by an unforgettable young Romy Schneider.
There are petticoats, corsets, bras, linen laces, elegant briefs. On each garment a crown is sewn, and the initials, ER or often SR, and in some cases ES, then Elisabeth queen or Sissi queen or together Elisabeth and Sissi. Together with the 28 unique, very elegant, historic underwear items, a splendid evening dress is also on auction in Grasbrünn, near Munich, starting price 4500 euros, a cape for the morning cold at the starting price of 1200 euro, a laced mourning veil dating back to 1889: so it is believed that it is probably what Sissi wore when the tragedy of the untimely death of her son Rudolf struck her in that year. Initial listing price 2000 euros.
Gödöllö was the favorite residence of Sissi, who loved Hungary, her people, to the point of speaking the very difficult but beautiful language perfectly, also often reading novels and poems in Hungarian. And pressing on Franz Joseph and the ruthless Marshal Radetzky he did his best to save the lives of heroic Magyar patriots condemned to the gallows and convince Vienna to grant Hungary the second crown of the two-headed Empire. Among those patriots she saved, the most famous – fascinating and highly cultured, the chronicles of the time recall – was Count Gyula Andrassy, who later co-opted into power was the great reformer and modernizer of his homeland. Many said that between Sissi and Andrassy there was an intense love affair. What is certain is that the memory of both still marks the splendid Budapest today: Andrassy Avenue, from the center to Hösök Tére (Heroes’ Square) is the longest, broadest and most beautiful street in the capital. And on the Buda Hill, Sissi as a statue looks every day at Budapest and the Magyars with melancholy eyes. Many ordinary citizens still carry flowers every day. They also did so during the Communist dictatorship. Instead, they ignored the nearby statue celebrating the Soviet victory-occupation of 1945.
Right or not to auction Sissi’s underwear? Should it be sold or would it belong to a museum, perhaps in the beautiful Gödöllö castle? The discussion is lively, but the Hermann auction house already aroused controversy in the past, by auctioning precious personal items that had belonged (legally or stolen from countries occupied by the Reich) by the Nazi leader of the Luftwaffe. Character light years away from the immortal charm and the beautiful memory that remain of Sissi.
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