Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2002 7:28 pm Post subject: Hepburn's Sons Demand Back Star's Belongings from Museum
This news was posted to the IMDb Movie & TV News:
Screen legend Audrey Hepburn's sons have demanded a museum return their mother's belongings to them - because the venue is turning into a tourist circus. The Breakfast At Tiffany's beauty, who died from colon cancer at age 63, lived near the Swiss village of Tolochenaz and when she died in 1993 her sons gave the local non-profit making museum priceless items from her private collection. Now both sons Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti believe the tribute has been taken too far and have demanded back the items they donated. Ferrer says, "This is my mother's resting place, not Graceland. We have completed our commitment but when we wanted the objects back, people went crazy." However, all the money donated to the museum is filtered back to Hepburn's favorite charities. Museum director Franca Price says, "As difficult as it will be to see Audrey's things disappear, we don't want to start a war. Maybe we should just let her rest in peace."
This article was posted in the Yahoo Groups Audreysplace:
THE DAILY EXPRESS dated Monday 14th October 2002
Column: DAY AND NIGHT GOSSIP COLUMN
Nine years after Audrey Hepburn's death, the glittering actress's legacy has fuelled an almighty row between her two sons and residents of the Swiss village where she died.
Audrey's relatives, we learn are up in arms after claiming a museum devoted entirely to the Oscar-winning My Fair Lady star has become exploitative and is turning into "Graceland".
Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti – Audrey's sons from her marriages to actor Mel Ferrer and Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti respectively – have demanded that Audrey's belongings at the museum be returned to them. The pair donated the items – including the best actress Oscar Audrey won for Roman Holiday – to the non-profit making museum in Tolochenaz which is close to the cemetery where the actress, who died in 1993 aged 63 of colon cancer, lies.
Ferrer, 42 says the retreat is now "getting out of hand" adding: "This is my mother's resting place, not Graceland." He claims they only ever agreed to loan the effects, which include family photographs and original film posters for five years. "We have completed our agreement but when we wanted the objects back, people went crazy," he says. He believes locals don't want to let go of the exhibits because of the "celebrity status" they bestow on the village.
He and Dotti, 32 are upset by the "over commercialisation" of the tourist-filled site and object to the sale of Audrey Hepburn chocolates and lavender from her garden.
But villagers, who donate the money from admission charges and souvenir sales to children's charities – a cause close to former UNICEF ambassadress Hepburn's heart - are dismayed. Once local Françoise Meier, says the charges are ridiculous. "There's nothing trashy about what we sell in the museum and nobody profits from tourism."
But all is not lost. Some of the memorabilia, including the famous black dress Audrey wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's, donated by the French designer Hubert de Givenchy, will remain and plans are afoot to use the museum for other fundraising causes in her memory.
As difficult as it will be to see Audrey's things disappear, we don't want to start a war in Tolochenaz," says the museum's director Franca Price. "Maybe we should just let her rest in peace."
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 Posts: 38 Location: Lampeter, Wales/Birmingham, England!
Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2002 9:14 pm Post subject:
All I can say is that I agree with Sean and Luca 100%. The thing which made Audrey so special was the fact that she was 'ethereal' - she was always just out of reach.
I admit to visiting Tolochenaz a few years ago, but that was just to 'breathe the air' - to get something of Audrey. But as to the 'museum' - well, I can't even remember if it was even open at the time - I know that I would never have visited it. To have done so would have destroyed everything about her.
The closest I've come to an exhibition is the acquisition of Stefania Ricci's catalogue of an Italian exhibition a few years ago.
If one wants a public icon, then (IMO) Audrey is simply the wrong choice. _________________ Paul.
Last edited by Tolochenaz on Wed Oct 16, 2002 9:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
I think I should agree with her sons. Nothing wrong to have a small museum celebrating her career and her work for the UN Children's Fund, but Tolochenaz is Audrey's resting place and people should respect her privacy.
November 1 2002
By Alison Langley
Tolochenaz, Switzerland
The sons of Audrey Hepburn, hurt by what they saw as the crass commercialisation of their mother's name, yesterday forced the closure of the museum dedicated to her in the Swiss village where she lived for 30 years.
Privacy was the reason Hepburn chose to live in Tolochenaz, an hour's drive from Geneva. But her family says the village has exploited its most famous resident by posting signs to her grave and selling souvenirs such as Audrey Hepburn jam.
The villagers are stung by the criticism, saying they were simply responding to the interest shown by the more than 5000 fans, mostly Japanese tourists, who visited each year.
"We are all devastated, dismayed," the museum's director, Franca Price, said after Hepburn's sons removed all memorabilia.
The Pavillon Audrey Hepburn contained photos and drawings by the actress, awards, and costumes designed by Hubert de Givenchy - including the little black dress she wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's, setting a trend that continues today.
The 30 or so volunteers who turned on the museum's lights each day for the past six years were happy to offer visitors assistance, pointing the way to Hepburn's grave and the house, La Paisibles.
But one of her sons, Sean Ferrer, says: "My mother went to live there because she liked to be able to live in peace: to go to the market and be treated like a normal person.
"This is a resting place, not Graceland."
The idea for the museum took shape after Hepburn died in 1993. Fans arrived at the front door of her vine-covered house or left flowers at her simple grave in the village cemetery.
When they kept coming, the villagers restored a two-room school while Mr Ferrer and his brother, Luca Dotti, sorted through the family attic for things to exhibit. It was agreed that any profits should go to a foundation to keep alive Hepburn's support for needy children.
Angry sons want to shut Hepburn museum
By Fiona Fleck in Tolochenaz, Switzerland
(Filed: 03/11/2002)
The family of Audrey Hepburn, the Hollywood star famed for her beauty and elegance, has demanded the closure of a museum in her home town which they say is cheapening her memory and attempting to cash in on her name.
The actress's two sons claim that an exhibition in Tolochenaz, Switzerland, which was intended to highlight their mother's international charity work and support good causes, has instead become a ghoulish shrine along the lines of Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley.
Sean Ferrer, Hepburn's son by her marriage to the actor Mel Ferrer, and his half-brother, Luca Dotti, say that the town - which was their mother's home for the last 30 years of her life - has used the exhibition to boost its own tourist trade.
They have demanded the return of dozens of her personal belongings, including private letters, photographs and her Academy Award for Roman Holiday, which were on loan to the Pavilion museum.
Situated opposite La Paisible, the vine-covered house where Hepburn lived until her death in 1993, the museum has attracted about 25,000 visitors since it opened six years ago.
In addition to the items loaned by her children, it houses a collection of outfits, among them the famous black dress she wore as Holly Golightly in the 1962 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, and items connected with her long-term work as a United Nations goodwill ambassador.
Mr Ferrer, a film producer based in Los Angeles, said that he and his brother had been supportive of the idea that an exhibition should be used to raise funds for causes his mother was passionate about, in particular, the UN.
He said, however, that in its eagerness to attract visitors, the town, which is in the foothills of the Alps and overlooks Lake Geneva, had lost sight of the original inspiration for the exhibition.
"This is not Graceland," he said. "Tolochenaz was a place where my mother could be like everyone else, go to the market, go shopping and be treated like a normal person, not running from the paparazzi all the time."
Mr Ferrer, 43, added: "Our intention had nothing to do with promoting the village or promoting our mother. I think the celebrity aspect of being visited by thousands of people a year - the Hollywood devil - got to them."
The family is furious about the sale of souvenirs including greetings cards with prints of Hepburn's childhood drawings and locally produced Audrey Hepburn jam. Franca Price, the director of the Pavilion, said the museum had raised thousands of pounds for the children's charities that Hepburn supported.
She said: "The bottom line is that we're extremely disappointed by this decision. From all the comments in the visitors' book and beautiful letters, I can only say that the Pavilion added greatly to the respect people feel for Audrey Hepburn."
Residents say that the Pavilion was created in response to demand after the star's death at the age of 63 from cancer. They recall a stream of tourists, mostly busloads of Japanese, who would take photographs of La Paisible and leave flowers and notes on her grave.
Last year Hepburn's sons insisted that road signs pointing the way to a grave should be removed from a public highway. They also blocked a plan to name a local road in her honour after they made it known that it was not what she would have wanted.
Hepburn, who starred in such classic films as My Fair Lady and Charade, worked as a goodwill ambassador for the UN's International Children's Emergency Fund.
Her last film appearance was as an angel in Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always.
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2003 5:49 pm Post subject: Fallen Angel
Having just read the argument between Audreys sons and the museum,artifacts and items that the museum still hold.I must say i agree with Audreys sons.Audrey Hepburn i believe was a fallen angel whom gave this planet something so warm and beautiful,her presence........let this angel rest in peace.There will never be another.
Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 1421 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2003 6:03 pm Post subject:
Yip, i agree with Audrey's sons as well. I wonder what Audrey would have thought of all this exploitation of her name. Tolochenaz was the one place she trusted to keep her privacy and now her "neighbours" have used her name to get more tourists. I love Audrey and I wish I could have met her, but at least she has left behind a great legacy and we can keep breathing her in through her wonderful films and all the books written about her. And we can still visit the scenes from her movies as well. I went to Via Margutta 51 when I was in Rome a month ago. Just knowing that she once stood where I stood!!! It was a great feeling! _________________ http://black-lawson-project.blogspot.com/
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Last edited by sands on Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
I totally understand why they're demanding it all back. I mean, it is their mother after all. I would want the stuff for myself, to remember her by... rather then traveling to a museum or something to remember her.
Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 262 Location: Somewhere in Fantasia
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 7:39 am Post subject:
After reading several articles posted on here, I wholly agree to what they did. If the exploitation is that grave, I would surely be as mad as they are. I guess it was time anyway. I would have loved to visit there but alas the locals were turning it into a profitable business (The jams!?) than a memoriam of Ms. Hepburn. Although, didn't the info on the official Audrey website say that there will be an on-going exhibition this coming 2004? I wonder how that would go...are they going to pattern it to the Tolochenaz museum...well I guess this one is emphasized on her humanitarian efforts which should be though I would love to see some rare ones too. _________________ Tutto il mondo è paese
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 12:45 am Post subject: true!
Yes, give it back to those who knew and loved her dearly. _________________ "The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides." ~Audrey
Her family deserves to have control over her 'memorial sites', and I really think it is a tacky and vulgar thing to have any 'Graceland' like hommage, but for such a classic, graceful actress as Audrey, it fits as well as making Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson saints.
No offense if you side with Mr. Jackson, but I can't believe the entire situation...
Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 954 Location: somewhere
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 8:19 pm Post subject:
I agree with Sean and Luca. I would have done the same thing if I where in their shoes. SELLING HER JAM! that's way outta line! _________________ "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me."
Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2529 Location: Mill Creek, Washington
Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:45 am Post subject:
I just found this topic while searching for something else, so I thought I would comment...
I don't know how this whole incident turned out, but I'm hoping that Sean and Luca were able to get Audrey's personal belongings back. From a selfish standpoint it's too bad they had to close the museum, but Audrey's life shouldn't be displayed for all the world to see like some tourist attraction. A while back, I was VERY dismayed to see that there was some sort of Audrey exhibit (and I think it was in San Francisco) in a large museum. I wasn't offended by it.. rather I was upset that I didn't know about it sooner, so I could have planned our trip differently! Small (or large) exhibits from time to time would be okay, or even a small museum near her hometown, but a huge display that is on exhibit continuously is kind of tacky. It may end up turning into another Graceland, and that's just not right. Audrey was never flashy or anything like other actresses and celebrities.
Andrea _________________ Once upon a time, on the north shore of Long Island, some 30 miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate.
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princesslovesreporter
it's too bad they had to close the museum, but Audrey's life shouldn't be displayed for all the world to see like some tourist attraction. A while back, I was VERY dismayed to see that there was some sort of Audrey exhibit (and I think it was in San Francisco) in a large museum. I wasn't offended by it.. rather I was upset that I didn't know about it sooner, so I could have planned our trip differently! 
Small (or large) exhibits from time to time would be okay, or even a small museum near her hometown, but a huge display that is on exhibit continuously is kind of tacky. It may end up turning into another Graceland, and that's just not right. Audrey was never flashy or anything like other actresses and celebrities.