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Ladies and Gentlemen, dear members,
Today (Marcel Proust's birthday) an auction was held at Drouot of letters, mostly unpublished, from Proust to his friend Louis d'Albuféra.
We took part in this sale to acquire three letters by exercising the pre-emption right available to us under the "Musée de France" label attached to the Maison de Tante Léonie.
These are three letters in which Proust discusses, respectively, the absence of his late parents, a dinner given by Montesquiou at his parents' home, and his love of literature.
The amount paid for these three pre-empted letters was 14,200 euros.
In addition, lot 7 consisted of a long humorous poem in which Proust consoles d'Albuféra, who was obliged to enter into a marriage of convenience. Estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 euros, it had been excluded from our pre-emption file. However, having noted that it found no bidders at 6,000 euros, we decided to purchase it as well, on account of its highly original character.
These acquisitions will enrich the collections of the Maison de Tante Léonie. They were made possible thanks to the support of the State and the Département d'Eure-et-Loir, who have granted us an exceptional subsidy covering around two-thirds of the cost. We extend our warm thanks to them, as well as to all of you, dear members, since without your subscriptions we could not have considered these purchases.
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On a far more anecdotal note, a postcard sent by Jules Amiot d'Illiers-Combray, in 1902, has recently been acquired to modestly enrich the collections of our museum.
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