Persian Realm

Gunter Sachs - the German-born billionaire, art collector and former husband of Brigitte Bardot and Lover of Princess Soraya killed himself at the age of 78. His death marks the end of an era in Jet Set history and extravaganza (See Related BBC News Here)

French Report on BFM TV:

German Report:

Sachs's family said he shot himself at his chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad on Saturday.

A grandson of car manufacturer Adam Opel, Sachs's wealth helped him to become him a prominent member of the glamorous 1960s "jet set".

Sachs Swiss Chalet in Gstaad 1971 was the focus of the International Jet Set:

Sachs was married three times and had three children.Born in southern Germany, Sachs trained in maths and economics before becoming a Swiss citizen in 1976. A noted photographer who won several awards for his documentary films, he was also an avid art collector with a keen interest in astrology.

Gunter Sachs and Bardot – the Glamorous Years of Saint Tropez:

Sachs and Bardot married in Las Vegas in 1966, a few weeks after they first met. The marriage lasted just over three years.

Brigitte Bardot-And God Created Woman(1956):

Hours after meeting her, Sachs arranged for a helicopter to fly over her house in southern France and drop hundreds of red roses.

"It's not every day that a man drops a tonne of roses in your yard," the actress later wrote.

A spokesman for Bardot's animal rights charity said on Sunday she was "devastated" by her ex-husband's death.

Sachs's first wife, Anne-Marie Faure, died in 1958, the same year his father, Willy Sachs, killed himself.

Willy Sachs - a Nazi Party member and an honorary SS officer - killed himself in a hunting hut in 1958; his son died at his home in Switzerland on Saturday. No other person was involved, police said.

German news weekly Focus said he had shot himself but Swiss police could not immediately confirm the reports.

Princess Soraya in Three Faces of a Women:

After his divorce with Bardot, Sachs married former Swedish model Mirja Larsson in 1969."Gunter Sachs always knew how to enjoy life," wrote the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.

Iran Air Ad 1970’s:

"Those who knew him may very well believe that he wanted to end it quickly to cut short the suffering of old age."

According to a farewell note released on Sunday, he took his life because of an illness he dubbed "A", believed to be Alzheimer's."The loss of mental control over my life was an undignified condition, which I decided to counter decisively," the letter said. He called it the "no hope illness A".

Jet Set Ads Including Iran Air:

Sachs, 78, was celebrated in Germany as an eternal playboy whose wealth - derived from the family-owned car maker Opel - was of less importance than his marriage to '60s sex kitten Brigitte Bardot.

Hours after meeting her for the first time he had a helicopter fly over her villa on the French Riviera, and shower it with hundreds of red roses."It's not every day that a man drops a tonne of roses in your yard," she later wrote. The marriage lasted three years.Sachs, who also had a relationship in the mid 1960’s with former Iranian queen Soraya Esfandiary, boasted of "never having worked a day in my life".

He made a name as a photographer of women and made documentary films. In 1955 he founded an institute to research the links between astrology and the human character.

End of An Era:

His first marriage, to Anne-Marie Faure, produced one son, Rolf, before she died after a car accident. Rolf undertook a career as a photographer and married an Iranian Arts patron and publisher Maryam Sachs . The latter recently published a book of rare aerial photos took by German photographer Georg Gerster in the 1970’s under the title : Paradise Lost: Persia From Above .

His last marriage, to Swedish model Mirja Larsson, produced two sons.

Sachs died with an estimated $1.5 billion fortune.

Recommended Reading:

A GIFT TO ALL PERSIANS: Shahbanou Farah inaugurates NY book Launching of Paradise Lost: Persia From Above by Darius KADIVAR

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