Mata Hari’s possessions bring ten times estimate at auction

DutchNews, April 1, 2016

Personal belongings of the Dutch dancer and spy Mata Hari went under the hammer on Friday in Amsterdam. 

Among the items were jewellery, a marble Chinese statue, silver cutlery, a doll’s tea service and opera glasses. 

They brought a total of €17,000, ten times their estimate. ‘We valued them as if they were regular items because we had no idea what extra value the name Mata Hari would give them,’ an auction room spokesman told the Telegraaf. 

Safe keeping

Mata Hari probably gave her possessions to her friend the artist Piet van der Hem in 1916 for safe keeping. 

They were later handed to a notary whose nephew has now brought them to auction. 

Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle to a well-to-do Frisian family in 1876. Following an unhappy marriage, she went to seek adventure in Paris where, as the exotic and mysterious Mata Hari, she became one of the most famous dancers of her day. 

She was arrested by the French in February 1917, tried as a spy for the Germans, and executed by firing squad that October at the age of 41.