Rodez (France) (AFP)

The prosecution appealed against the court decision dismissing the Toulouse-Lautrec family, which demanded the return of the castle where the painter grew up in Aveyron, Rodez prosecutor Olivier Naboulet said on Tuesday.

Wednesday September 15, the Criminal Court of Rodez had released the current owners, the spouses Corinne and Jean-Claude Putzola, accused of "swindle" and "abuse of weakness and trust".

The appeal trial must take place in Montpellier.

During the hearing on June 2, the prosecutor Bernard Salvador requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence against the Putzola spouses, believing that they had taken advantage of the vulnerability of Nicole Tapié de Celeyran, great-grandmother. niece of Toulouse-Lautrec and occupant of the castle until her death in 2016, at the age of 91.

The old lady was "blinded by the Putzola husbands, they abused her ignorance in legal matters", he then denounced.

"Obviously, it is abject to take advantage of the vulnerability of an elderly person, but in this case, there is nothing to prove their guilt", had on the other hand pleaded the lawyer of the Putzola couple, Elian Gaudy.

Fifteen descendants of Toulouse-Lautrec and Nicole Tapié de Celeyran had become civil parties in this affair, notably asking for ownership of the 12th century estate.

The Toulouse-Lautrec museum in Albi was also a civil party.

Four months before his death, the painter's heiress had designated Jean-Claude Putzola and his wife Corinne as the sole universal legatees of the castle of Bosc located in the town of Camjac, and of a 22-hectare park.

It is in this residence, classified as a historical monument and "estimated at more than a million euros" according to Me Rastoul, that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) spent part of his childhood.

The two sixties, who then lived in the Hérault, did not meet the old lady until August 2015, a year before her death, through a cousin by marriage of the heiress.

Quickly they settle in the private apartments of the castle.

A few weeks later, in October, they appear in a will of the nonagenarian, alongside other "natural" heirs.

Three other wills will follow, until the last, in April 2016 where only the name of the Putzola appears.

Before her death, Nicole Tapié from Celeyran had also transferred a sum of 20,000 euros to their account.

© 2021 AFP