NICE: The widower of French screen icon Brigitte Bardot has slammed as a ‘joke’ the planned auction of hundreds of the late star’s personal belongings organised by her animal welfare foundation.
The sale, featuring more than 300 items ranging from portraits and toiletries to a flamenco guitar and a black tutu, is due to take place at Paris auction house Drouot on Monday.
‘These are personal items. Why hold this sale? For the animals? It’s a joke,’ Bernard d’Ormale said, adding it amounted to a ‘disrespect to Brigitte’s memory’.
‘All of this could have been kept for the day when people are able tovisit La Madrague,’ he added, referring to Bardot’s famed home in Saint-Tropez.
He said around threequarters of the items came from Bardot’s Paris apartment, with the remainder from La Madrague.
Her belongings should have been preserved as part of her legacy rather than sold to raise funds for the foundation she created, d’Ormale argued, adding that Bardot ‘would not have agreed to this sale’.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction was approved by the board in June, including Bardot’s widower, who was then its president.-AFP