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Mitterand: Everything Must Go
From Castro with love
Fans of late French President François Mitterand will soon be able to own part of his heritage, as a collection of his relics goes on sale in a Paris auction house.
The President's widow, Danielle, is auctioning hundreds of items of clothing, gifts and other personal belongings to raise money for her human rights charity. Price estimates range from €20 to €4000 for a coffee table.
Auction house Tajan has a list of belongings on sale: There are numerous charcoal suits by Mitterand's favourite tailor, Cifonelli: Future historians might wish to fantasise over which one he was wearing when he ordered actress Carole Bouquet have her telephone line bugged.
Perhaps he was wearing lot 37, a nice pair of Church's embroidered slippers, when French intelligence agents acting on his orders sank Rainbow Warrior?
And might the President have been wearing one of those exquisite Berteil smoking jackets as he arranged French power behind the forces who would carry out the Rwandan massacres - the greatest atrocity of the 1990s - in a desperate attempt to cling to French puissance in black Africa?
And what are the human rights organisations likely to benefit from the proceeds of the sale likely to make of lots 283-285, a series of gifts to Mitterand and his wife from that renowned champion of human rights, Fidel Castro? (that's a crocodile bag from the "Commander in Chief" pictured above).
The sale organiser told the BBC that the estimates have been kept low "so that all the French people who loved Mitterrand can make bids." Mitterand is still revered on the left and a subject of fascination among France's media elites.
The sale takes place at the Drout auction house on the 29 January.
