New Delhi, June 12 -- When Bonhams catalogued Diane Keaton's black felt bowler hat, it was estimated the way hats are estimated, at a few hundred dollars. When the bidding closed this week, the hat brought $19,200. It outsold her Cartier.

The Architecture of an Icon," closing in sequence between June 8 and June 11 in New York and Los Angeles, according to the auction house's results. Together they amount to the first public accounting of the actress's possessions since her death in October at 79, and the first time the market has been asked, directly, what her persona was worth. The answer was emphatic and a little strange.

In the "Tailored & Timeless" sale, 241 lots of the wardrobe that made menswear a female movie star's signature, th...