A Paris auction of furniture belonging to late French president Francois Mitterrand has raised 80,200 euros (102,000 dollars), most of which is to go to help a son of the former leader who is drowning under waves of criminal allegations.
Nine items went under the hammer late Monday, including a chaise longue, chairs, a table, stools, all of them in the distinctive spare and linear style of the 1970s, when they were acquired.
Danielle Mitterrand, widow of the former Socialist president who died in 1996, organised the auction to fall on what would have been the 88th birthday of her husband.
She was forced to part with the objects to help her son Jean-Christophe, whose accounts have been blocked pending criminal investigations for suspected illegal arm sales to Angola, money-laundering and tax fraud.
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was hospitalised last month suffering from depression.