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Mitterand Privatisation Completed
Another bling-bling President
The macabre sell-off of late President François Mitterand's relics seems to have been a success, with the auction raising a total of €150,000 (£111,300 / $221,560) - nearly three times what was expected.
Some items fetched well beyond their estimate. One of Mitterand's prized fedora hats was sold for €7800, reportedly to the President's Parti Socialiste.
Mitterand's relics attracted several hundred bidders to the Paris auction house. Some hard-left commentators grumbled that it was not befitting a left-wing President to own such luxe and expensive items of clothing as Cifonelli suits and a very bling-bling pair of Church's slippers.
The current President Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticised by the left for his expensive tastes - but Sarko's enjoyment of Ralph Lauren casual shirts looks modest compared to Mitterand's hand-tailored finery.
One bidder hoping to buy a tie told The Times,
"It would be a fine thing for me, a man of the people, to wear the tie of the king.”
The king! Says a lot about how some Frenchmen view their Presidents!
Members of Mitterand's Socialist Party argued that rather than selling off the President's gear (even if it was for charity) it should have been kept "for posterity". EURSOC, while not sharing their enthusiasm for M Mitterand or his legacy, would tend to agree. The prospect of several hundred of the President's personal effects sold off to enthusiasts around France strikes us as akin to the selling of saints' relics.
Surely there is some vault in Paris where all this stuff could have been kept, in the event of a Mitterand retrospective some decades hence? Selling the President's personal belongings like this serves to perpetuate the Cult of Mitterand. There's likely to be a Mitterand suit or medallion in every village, waiting to be placed on display so believers can press their noses against the glass and observe the man's sacred belongings.
One can imagine fervent believers in town halls over over the country fingering their hero's silk ties while cursing the current crop of Socialist squabblers.
We'll be listening out for the first miracle attributed to a pair of Mitterand's Church's slippers any day soon.
Yes, better to have put the lot in storage.
