Rare Dom Perignon champagne from Charles and Diana’s wedding fails to sell during Denmark auction
LYNGBY, Denmark (AP) — It was a wedding that captivated the world — in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer said “I will” to Prince Charles, becoming Princess of Wales and bringing youth and glamour to Britain’s royal family.
More than 40 years after the wedding and many years after the marriage fell apart, royal fans had the chance to buy a rare part of that historic day — or perhaps a sip of it — during an auction Thursday. But the exclusive magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne was ultimately not sold because the bids were not high enough.
The champagne, specially produced for the occasion, was expected to fetch up to 600,000 Danish kroner (around 81,000 euros or $93,000) when it went under the hammer Thursday at Bruun Rasmussen’s auction house in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen.
“The bids did not reach the desired minimum price, and therefore it was unfortunately not sold,” auction house spokesperson Kirstine Dam Frihed said in an email Thursday. “We had of course hoped that it would sell at the estimated value, especially considering the great public interest it received.”
Prince Charles, now King Charles III, married Lady Diana Spencer in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. The ceremony was followed by a lavish reception at Buckingham Palace.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. A year later, she and companion Dodi Fayed died in a high-speed car crash in Paris.
The champagne was a limited-edition wedding release, created to celebrate the union.
