Twenty-two original manuscripts by Georges Brassens were auctioned 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.
Up to 54,600 euros per manuscript
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.
Manuscripts of the "Great Oak".
ARTCURIAL
The manuscript of "Vieux Léon" reached 36,400 euros, followed by the song entitled "September 22" (35,100 euros) and by "Les Deux Uncles" (23,400 euros).
The evening started with music with a concert by the singers of the "Hall de la Chanson" who performed some of the works on sale: a preview of their Brassens show, "the weed", scheduled for November.
"I have awarded the soul of a poet"
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.
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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.