Twenty-two original manuscripts by Georges Brassens were auctioned off in front of a well-filled room for a total of 377,650 euros including fees, five times their overall estimate, the auction house Artcurial announced on Tuesday.
Nine pre-emptions were exercised during this sale, which was the subject of a great bidding battle.
100% of the lots have been sold.
These were manuscripts from the estate of Fred Mella, tenor and soloist of the Compagnons de la Chanson, who died in 2019, who was a close friend of the chansonnier.
These are the documents of the famous
Plea to be buried at the beach of Sète
which won the highest price at 54,600 euros including fees, more than 36 times their estimate.
The manuscript of Vieux Léon reached 36,400 euros, followed by the song entitled
Le 22
Septembre (35,100 euros) and by
Les Deux Uncles
(23,400 euros).
To read also: In the intimacy of Georges Brassens
The evening started with music with a concert by the singers of the “Hall de la Chanson” who performed some of the songs on sale: a preview of their Brassens show, “La malherbe”, scheduled for November.
The artist's long creative and perfectionist process - sometimes up to four years for the final version of a song - was brought to light during the dispersal of this collection: verse searches, retouching, wordlists of the same lexical field, sketches of rhymes, abandonment then reuse of a line.
The municipal archives and the media library of the agglomeration of Sète, town of Brassens, as well as the National Library of France (BNF) are at the origin of the pre-emptions.
The BNF pre-empted
The Old Oak
and a set of 74 pages of manuscripts for
Le Blason
.
"I awarded the soul of a poet in a packed house, collected but explosive"
, summarized Hervé Poulain, the auctioneer.
Read also: Three men in the photo: the historic meeting of Brassens, Brel and Ferré
