François Mitterrand’s presidential gifts are on display in Morvan, 45 years after his election

Stuffed lions, portraits of “Uncle” in African costume, Uzbek vases bearing the image of the presidential couple: in Morvan, the former stronghold of François Mitterrand, the Cité des Présents exhibits the gifts offered to the ex-president, sometimes very kitschy souvenirs. Some objects are worth a fortune, like this clock decorated with a gold palm tree, with sapphires, diamonds or rubies, offered by the extremely wealthy Saudi Arabia. Some have rather a symbolic value, like this Japanese poem written with earth from Hiroshima.

Others, finally, can make you giggle: a pair of black American cowboy boots embroidered with the initials “FM”, like François Mitterrand, a couple of stuffed lion and lioness or a fictitious portrait of the president, painted quite crudely, covered in the harness of an “African chief”, with headdress and loincloth colorful, witness to a France of another century. “The interest of this gift offered by the President of the Republic of Ivory Coast in 1982 is precisely this correspondence between a fictitious portrait in traditional dress with a set of militarias which represent the position of leader of a people“, explained to AFP Thibaud Richard, head of the City of the Present.

Mitterrand a été “the first French president to have revealed the gifts intended for him“, specifies Thibaud Richard. Elected president on May 10, 1981, just 45 years ago, the socialist wanted to be “close to the French“, mocking the royal ancestry of his predecessor, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The right-wing candidate was also mired in the affair of the “Bokassa diamonds”, which were allegedly given to him by the dictator of the Central African Republic, giving the “gifts” to French presidents a sulfurous connotation.

François Mitterrand therefore decides to give the gifts he received to the department of Nièvre, of which he was president for 35 years, and in particular to Château-Chinon (Nièvre), a village in Morvan of which he was mayor from 1959 to 1981. On July 12, 1986, the Musée du septennat opened in this remote town, installed in a former convent which quickly proved too cramped. It closed at the end of the 2010s for renovation and expansion.

After seven years of work, the new complex, renamed Cité des presents, was inaugurated on Sunday May 10, the 45th anniversary of the 1981 presidential election, in the presence of the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure. It brings together a fashion museum and a gift museum, which exhibits nearly 350 objects received by François Mitterrand. He visited 86 countries during his presidency, around 80 of which are represented through this collection of 4,800 objects.

These gifts attest to diplomatic exchanges between France and other States, in a sort of outdated diplomacy, like these sculpted elephant tusks or these sea turtle shells.We hope for 40,000 visitors per year initially. We can dream of 100,000 per year“, estimates Fabien Bazin, socialist president of the Nièvre department.

In addition to the official offerings, the museum also bears witness, through some gifts offered by ordinary citizens, to the popular enthusiasm from which “Uncle”, as the former president was nicknamed, benefited.

In a window lies a tiny navy blue hat, knitted by a Savoyard woman with the first name François, which was intended to keep warm the boiled egg favored by the former head of state for his breakfast.

François Mitterrand died on January 8, 1996, 30 years ago this year.