NICE (France): An Olympic flag design created by Pierre de Coubertin was sold for 185,000 euros ($215,617) on Sunday, the auction house in Cannes that organised the sale said.
Alexandre Debussy, associate director of Cannes Encheres, said that the design was sold to a Brazilian collector for that sum, adding that France’s National Sport Museum made a bid that was not enough to secure its purchase.
Created in 1913 by Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, the design had been given to one of his supporters in Lausanne, and stayed in the same family until it was bought by the collector who put it up for auction on Sunday.
The 21 x 27.5 cm design, in graphite and opaque watercolour, far exceeded its estimated sale price of between 80,000-100,000 euros.
