A public tribute will be paid Thursday in Nice to the artist Ben and his wife Annie, who died on Wednesday a few hours apart after 60 years of living together in this town on the Côte d’Azur, the town hall announced this Friday.
The tribute ceremony to the artist with falsely naive “writings” will start at 10:30 a.m. on the water mirror of the Promenade du Paillon, the park that runs through the city center. The family calls on those who wish to place flowers at the feet of their portraits and to express themselves in message and drawing registers which will be opened on site. The two coffins will then be taken to the crematorium for a private ceremony in the afternoon.
Benjamin Vautier, his real name, is died Wednesday at age 88 at his home full of works of art on the heights of Nice, a few hours after his wife Annie died of a stroke suffered on Monday, according to a family press release.
“Ben and Annie, it was a fusion. One without the other didn’t exist”, Robert Roux, close friend of the couple and deputy mayor of Nice, delegate for culture, testified on Wednesday. “She corrected him from time to time in his excesses, he teased her constantly and we couldn’t see Ben without Annie and vice versa. It’s a crazy example of a truly astonishing love.”
