The private collection of designer F’Murrr enters the national collections

On April 10, 2018, the cartoonist F’Murrr, whose real name is Richard Peyzaret, known in particular for his series The Genius of the Alpine Pastures, died at the age of 72. It leaves an invaluable heritage which will continue to transport many generations of readers in a poetic and quirky universe.

Read also :F’Murrr, the alpine Monty Python, is gone

The excessively high costs of this succession and the concern to preserve the work of this pillar of Pilot encouraged his two heiress sisters to apply for the state, says The world . Plates, album covers, illustrations, preparatory sketches… The designer has kept more than a thousand drawings and illustrations in his Parisian apartment. The boards are estimated between 1000 and 2000 euros on the market. “Transfer taxes were high, with assets exceeding 300,000 euros. There was a real risk that the heiresses would refuse the inheritance because they did not have the means to pay ”, specifies at World Alexis Fournol, lawyer specializing in the art world. The idea of ​​a donation to the State is essential, making it possible to settle a tax debt by ceding to the State works considered worthy of entering the circle of national collections. It’s a first. The comic strip had never before been the subject of such an initiative.

The heiresses thus proposed to bequeath 238 originals and other documents to the State, for a price estimated at 228,000 euros by Eric Dumeyniou, judicial auctioneer at the auction house Aponem. The donation was accepted by the State in February 2020, and today the mystery remains on the public institution that will be responsible for preserving them.

Legitimation

If the rights holders have expressed the wish that his works be shared between the International City of Comics and Image (CIBDI) of Angoulême, for the boards, and the Tomi-Ungerer Museum of Strasbourg, for press illustrations and cartoons, these two institutions are not public. This would explain a certain slowness in the progress of the file. According to The world, the Ministry of Culture could develop a hybrid montage where a public institution would have the assignment of the originals of F’Murrr, which would be deposited in the City of Angoulême and the Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg.

The acceptance of the joint legacy by the Ministry of Culture and that of the Economy and Finance, (which validated the amount) is worth its weight in gold in the landerneau of comics. It ensures the ninth art a new step in its legitimation. By joining his gang buddies at Pilot, Come in Gotlib, Guy Vidal or René Goscinny, F’Murrr and his quirky humor have won the prestigious sphere of national collections.

– .