LONDON -- The headdress and breast cup of an exotic dancer that reputedly belonged to executed World War I spy Mata Hari are to be sold at auction next month, a spokeswoman for Sotheby's said.
The costume jewelry headdress and matching breast cups of gilded tin plate filigree belong to Lula Adams, a former clown, who bought them in France in 1922.
The items are expected to fetch between $215 and $360 when auctioned Feb. 5, the spokeswoman said.
She said there is no way to verify the costume pieces belonged to Mata Hari, but it is believed they did.
Mata Hari, a Dutch-Javanese beauty whose real name was Marguerite-Gertrude Zelle, was executed by the French on Oct. 15, 1917, as a German spy.
The night club dancer and party girl had a string of lovers across Europe, many of them military officers and diplomats, after her divorce from a Scottish army captain in 1902.
Her oriental dances in scanty costumes were daring for the times but she fell on hard times when war broke out in 1914 and had to sell her furniture and jewelry.
She was arrested in 1917 and admitted giving the Germans information, but insisted it was only to learn secrets to slip to the French.
Dressed in an ankle length dress and high-laced black boots, she faced her firing squad without a blindfold. She was 41.
No one claimed her body and it was sent to the medical school at the University of Paris, where students dissected it. Her brain is believed preserved in formaldahyde at the school.
