Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

City Hall in Paris puts wine on the block

The new Socialist mayor wants to sell off the collection.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 21, 2006

PARIS - Paris City Hall unlocked its hallowed wine cellar Friday to auction off nearly 5,000 top-end bottles, many of them leftovers from the lavish dinner parties of the former longtime mayor, President Jacques Chirac.

The collection has caught the attention of professional and amateur buyers from around the world. Auction organizers expected to bring in up to $942,000.

At a small auction house near City Hall, bidders sat hunched over the lengthy catalog as the auction began Friday afternoon, discussing their strategies.

Collector Eric Guy, 50, wouldn't say how much he intended to spend on a bottle, but said he aimed to help keep City Hall's treasures within French borders.

"We've got to stop the Americans and Japanese from buying up all the French wine," he said.

Bernard Bled, who managed the mayoral wine cellar from 1975 to 2001, said he was sad to see the bottles go. "I would have preferred to see them drunk and enjoyed by important people, as intended," he said. "France loses prestige at home, exporting it elsewhere."

Much of the collection was pulled together during conservative Chirac's term as mayor from 1977 to 1995. The current Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, has led the effort to sell the wine off, reportedly as part of efforts to seek a less elitist use of city funds. Delanoe also had the private mayoral apartments converted into a nursery for employees' children.

The mayor's office declined to comment on the auction.

One of the first wine lots of the day - six bottles of 1998 Chateau Lafite Rothschild - sold for double its estimated value of $1,133. (That's $378 a bottle.)

[Last modified October 21, 2006, 01:52:51]