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PARIS Passionate letters from Edith Piaf in which the grieving French singer tells one of her many lovers he could supplant the man of her life were auctioned for 67,000 euros (93,000 dollars) here Thursday.
The 54 letters, dated from 15 November 1951 to 18 September the following year, were bought by a French telephone bidder whose identity was not revealed by Christies auction house.
The letters are to French cycling champion Louis Gerardin, two years after the death of Frances world middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash on his way to a rematch with Jake LaMotta in late 1949.
Their tempestuous affair ended in 1952, when Piaf, the subject of an Oscar-winning biopic entitled La Vie en Rose in 2007, married French actor Jacques Pills in New York.
Arguably best known for the song Non, je ne regrette rien, Piaf was touring when she wrote Can you believe it, my cherished beauty, that if I were to place you on the same pedestal as the others, I would have taken down Marcels picture?
A morphine addict, following a 1951 car crash in which she suffered serious injuries after what had already been a lifetime of alcohol abuse, Piaf spoke of her desire to transform her life, pining for marriage and a family.
You have pulled me up just in time, I prayed in church that if you came to me, I would never again touch another glass of alcohol.
Piafs entourage, including other lovers and veteran French cabaret star Charles Aznavour, whose career she helped to launch and a fellow passenger during the car accident, also figure prominently in the collection. Piaf died of cancer in 1963 aged 47.-AFP
