Senegal acquires souvenirs of Léopold Sédar Senghor promised for sale

Senegal announced on Wednesday that it had acquired property in France from its former president Léopold Sédar Senghor for a total value of 244,000 euros, after obtaining the suspension of their auction. “The acquisition operation” was “finalized” Monday at the Caen auction house between the State of Senegal and Solène Lainé, auctioneer associated with this establishment, indicated the Senegalese Ministry of Culture , in a press release published Wednesday.

The objects that belonged to President Senghor and his wife, Colette, number 41, including jewelry and military decorations of the former head of state as well as various other objects, such as diplomatic gifts. Among them, an Order of the Nile necklace in gold (18 carats) composed of a set of sixteen links on a cracked background with decorations of three symbols of ancient Egypt received by the ex-president during a visit in 1967 during which he will deliver a speech at Cairo University: Negritude and Arabness. The collection also features gold fountain pens by the poet.

“The cost of the operation, all costs included, amounts to 244,000 euros”, or approximately 160 million CFA francs, affirmed the Senegalese ministry in its press release, referring to “an amicable solution” in the acquisition of these goods. “The mediation went very well and we reached an agreement. All of the lots in this sale are the subject of an amicable transfer by agreement with Senegal. All parties are delighted with this agreement,” Solène Lainé told AFP on Wednesday, without indicating the cost.

Senegal announced on October 20 that it would acquire the lots auctioned in France to “preserve the memory and heritage” of its former president who was in power from 1960 to 1980. It then obtained the suspension of the sale at auction for direct negotiations for the acquisition of these objects belonging to an individual. These objects have nothing to do with the fund bequeathed to the town hall of Verson (Calvados, northwest), explained Solène Lainé.

It is in this town, where he died in 2001, that the former Senegalese president used to spend summer vacations after his marriage to Colette Hubert, a Norman, on the family property. Poet and writer, Léopold Sédar Senghor was a champion of Négritude, a movement for the defense of the cultural values ​​of the black world that he founded in the 1930s with the Martinican Aimé Césaire and the Guyanese Léon Gontran Damas. Graduated in French grammar, he was the first African member of the French Academy. He died in 2001 in Verson at the age of 95.