Brigitte Bardot widower slams sale of star's belongings
The widower of French screen icon Brigitte Bardot on Saturday 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 Monday at Paris auction house Drouot.
"These are personal items. Why hold this sale? For the animals? It's a joke," Bernard d'Ormale told AFP, adding it amounted to a "disrespect to Brigitte's memory".
"All of this could have been kept for the day when people are able to visit La Madrague," he added, referring to Bardot's famed home in Saint-Tropez.
He said around three-quarters 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.
However, d'Ormale said he had not understood the auction would involve such personal items.
The dispute comes days after he was removed as head of the foundation, a role he had held since the star's death in December.
The 85-year-old, who remains on the foundation's board, also complained he no longer has free access to La Madrague.
"I've lived there for 35 years and now they're throwing me out. It's quite something," d'Ormale said.
Founded by the actor in 1986, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation says it has taken in 13,000 animals through four shelters and 150 partner facilities, supports 350 groups in France and operates in 70 countries.
Born and raised in Paris, Bardot was an aspiring ballerina during her childhood. She began her acting career in 1952 and achieved international recognition in 1957 for her role in And God Created Woman (1956), catching the attention of many French intellectuals and earning her the nickname "sex kitten". She was the subject of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay The Lolita Syndrome, which described her as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the most liberated woman of France. She won a 1961 David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress Award for her work in The Truth (1960). Bardot later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (1963). For her role in Louis Malle's film Viva Maria! (1965), she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress. French president Charles de Gaulle called Bardot "the French export as important as Renault cars".
After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot became an animal rights activist and created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. She was known for her strong personality, outspokenness, speeches on animal welfare, and for her long-term support of far-right views. She was fined twice for public insults, and five times for inciting racial hatred for her criticism of Muslims in France and calling residents of Réunion "savages". She responded: "I never knowingly wanted to hurt anybody. It is not in my character [...] Among Muslims, I think there are some who are very good and some hoodlums, like everywhere." AFP