Hungarian-born aristocrat Pal Sarkozy de Nagy Bocsa, aged 80, would probably never have exhibited his paintings in Valencia if his son didn't happen to be the President of France; but then Valencians pride themselves on being ready to accept and forgive just about anybody.

Chatting with Valancia's Mayoress, Rita Barberá in the Town hall Exhibition Centre in front of his paintings, which feature naked, tattooed women in various provocative poses against surrealistic, fantasy backdrops, he declared: "women inspire me more than other subjects."

He should know, he is already on his fourth wife, Ines, 20 years his junior. Sarkozy Senior preferred Spain to France for his exhibition so as to avoid accusations that he was cashing in on his son's success, and has decided that he will only exhibit in Paris if the show is a success in Spain first.

He has spent the past four years with his German colleague Werner Hornung creating 40 works, 35 of which are on display in Valencia, in an exhibition with the English title ‘Out of Mind', and which they describe as "digital fine art".

The exhibition includes portraits of the President, and also one of his Italian wife, Carla Bruni, on show for the first time. Pal Sarkozy claimed that it was Carla who effected a reconciliation between the father and son.

He was born in Budapest in 1928 and his family owned lands and a small castle in Alattyan. Both his father and grandfather held elective offices in the nearby town of Szolnok.

Pal started painting when he arrived in Paris as a penniless immigrant after Hungary was occupied by Russian troops. His mother apparently forced him to leave to avoid being sent to a Gulag, telling the authorities he had drowned. He served for five years in the French Foreign Legion, although he was supposedly a stateless citizen until the 1970s.

He married Andrée Mallah., the president's mother, at 21, and had his first son, Guillaume, at 22. Nicolas, the second son, was three when his father left his mother for an ambassador's daughter, who became his second wife.

He designed advertisements for Singer sewing machines before creating one of the first anti-wrinkle creams.

Pal Sarkozy is not a stranger to Spain, having owned a house in the jet set island of Ibiza. He stated that he and Hornung had chosen Valencia for the exhibition because of the city's special light and the hospitable, charming nature of its people.

© Valencia Business News

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