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Parisians Are Up In Arms Over The Auction Of A 150-Year-Old Guillotine

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Parisians are up in arms over the auction of a 150-year-old guillotine with “a few dents on the blade” Wednesday.

French citizens are outraged after auction house Drouot sold a ten-foot-tall guillotine to millionaire Christophe Fevrier for $9,400 after only two minutes of bidding, according to Expatica.

Despite the auction house claiming the guillotine was a replica and never beheaded anyone, it was found with “a few dents on the blade,” according to Fox News. The guillotine was expected to go for at least $5,835, according to the auction site’s website. (RELATED: Vase Found In Shoebox Pulls In $19M During Auction)

“We warned Pestel-Debord, the auctioneer that he could not sell this guillotine. Just like the costumes of deportees or the instruments of torture, the object is part of the sensitive sales,” a spokesman from the auction watchdog the Council of Voluntary Sales told Le Parisien. (RELATED: Vincent Van Gogh Painting Sells For Millions At Auction)

The auction house previously sold another guillotine for $234,000 in 2011, according to the New York Post. Lady Gaga was reportedly a bidder for the device. (RELATED: British Museum Gets Rare 19th Century Watercolor That Captures London Before Historic Fire)

The guillotine beheaded 16,000 people during the French Revolution between 1793 and 1794, nicknamed “The Reign of Terror.”

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Tags : france paris
Gabrielle Okun