特權、秘密和丑聞，最富有女性貝當古的一生

Liliane Bettencourt, the French heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics fortune and a family legacy of fascist associations, whose final years were vexed by allegations that she had fallen under the sway of a younger man and given him $1.4 billion, died Wednesday at her home in the Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine. She was 94.

歐萊雅化妝品公司(L’Oréal)的法國女繼承人利利亞娜·貝當古(Liliane Bettencourt)于周三在巴黎郊區(qū)塞納河畔訥伊的家中去世，享年94歲。她不僅繼承了該公司的巨額財富，還曾背負與法西斯過從甚密的家族歷史。在晚年，她遭到一系列指控的困惑，有人說她被一名比她年輕的男子控制，曾給了他14億美元。

Her death was confirmed by Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive of L’Oréal Group, on the company’s website.

歐萊雅集團的總裁兼首席執(zhí)行官讓-保羅·阿貢(Jean-Paul Agon)在該公司的網(wǎng)站上確認了她的死訊。

L’affaire Bettencourt had captivated France since 2007, when a daughter’s lawsuit charged that Bettencourt, ranked as the richest woman in the world, had been bamboozled by a society photographer 25 years her junior for cash, annuities, fine art and, it seemed, an island in the Seychelles. The complaint challenged her mother’s competency and led to criminal charges against the man, who was portrayed as a gigolo.

貝當古事件從2007年起吸引了整個法國的注意，她的一名女兒提起訴訟，指控貝當古被比自己小25歲的交際圈攝影師騙取了現(xiàn)金、年金和藝術品，似乎還包括塞舌爾的一座小島。貝當古去世前是世界上最富有的女性。這項指控對貝當古的能力提出了質疑，并引發(fā)了針對那名被描繪成男妓的男子的刑事訟訴。

Accused of “abus de faiblesse,” or exploiting the old woman’s frailty, the photographer, François-Marie Banier, was bombarded at a trial in early 2015 by the testimony of maids, butlers, doctors and others who called him the dominating manipulator of an overmedicated, disoriented woman. They said he chose Bettencourt’s lipstick and clothing, monitored her appointments and once suggested that she adopt him.

2015年初，攝影師弗朗索瓦-馬里·巴尼耶(François-Marie Banier)在審判中遭到女傭、管家和醫(yī)生等證人的指控，稱他利用老年女性的脆弱，支配和操縱一位過度用藥、失去判斷力的女人。他們說他替貝當古選擇唇膏和服裝，監(jiān)控她與他人的會面，并曾建議她收養(yǎng)自己。

Deaf and afflicted with dementia, Bettencourt did not attend the trial. But her daughter and court-appointed guardian, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, told the court in the southwestern city of Bordeaux: “The strategy of Mr. Banier was not just to divide and conquer. It was to break and conquer. To break our family. It was programmed destruction.”

失聰且患有失智癥的貝當古沒有參加審判。但她的女兒、法庭指定監(jiān)護人弗朗索瓦絲·貝當古-梅耶斯(Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers)在西南部城市波爾多的法庭上表示：“巴尼耶的策略不只是為了分裂和征服。而是為了破壞和征服。他想破壞我們的家族。是精心設計的毀滅。”

Banier, who faced up to three years in prison, vehemently denied the daughter’s accusations and brushed off the retainers’ criticisms with literary references to Molière and a play by Jean Genet about maids plotting against a rich employer. “These are people who take revenge for a life they don’t have,” he said.

巴尼耶當時面臨長達三年的監(jiān)禁，堅決否認這名女兒的指控，并引用莫里哀(Molière)的文學作品以及讓·熱內(nèi)(Jean Genet)的一部關于仆人們陰謀陷害富有雇主的戲劇，駁斥了仆人們的指責。“這些人是想報復他們無法擁有的生活，”他說。

In May 2015, the court convicted Banier of abuse and money laundering and sentenced him to three years in prison, of which six months were suspended. He was also ordered to pay 158 million euros, or $173 million, in damages and a fine equivalent to about $418,000.

2015年5月，該法庭判定巴尼耶濫用信任、洗錢，判處他三年監(jiān)禁，其中六個月緩期執(zhí)行。法庭還命令他賠償1.58億歐元(約合1.73億美元)的損失，并對他罰款約41.8萬美元。

The Butler Was Taping

管家在偷偷錄音

In 2010, the family soap opera also exploded into a government scandal after tape recordings secretly made by the dowager’s butler, and accusations by a former family accountant, suggested that Bettencourt had kept $98 million in secret Swiss bank accounts, evaded taxes, given envelopes of cash to Cabinet ministers and made illegal campaign contributions to Nicolas Sarkozy shortly before his election to the French presidency in 2007.

2010年，這部家族肥皂劇還演變成了一樁政府丑聞。這位富孀的管家偷偷錄下的音頻以及一名前家族會計的指控表明，貝當古曾在瑞士的秘密銀行賬戶里存了9800萬美元，還曾逃稅，給多位內(nèi)閣部長塞紅包，在尼古拉·薩科齊(Nicolas Sarkozy)2007年當選法國總統(tǒng)前不久為他的競選非法捐款。

Sarkozy denied any improprieties, but he lost the presidency to the Socialist François Hollande in 2012, and with it his official immunity from prosecution. He was placed under formal investigation, suspected of having taken advantage of Bettencourt’s mental frailty to obtain campaign funds. However, French magistrates dropped the inquiry in 2013.

薩科齊否認自己有任何不當行為，但他在2012年的總統(tǒng)競選中輸給了社會黨人弗朗索瓦·奧朗德(François Hollande)，也因此失去了官方的起訴豁免權。他被正式調查，被懷疑利用貝當古的精神脆弱謀取競選資金。不過，2013年，法國地方法官放棄了調查。

While she remained in the background most of her life, Bettencourt had long tried to live down the stains of anti-Semitic activities and Nazi associations by her father and husband before and during World War II: a well-documented record of propaganda writings and material support for fascist groups, some of whose followers found refuge after the war at L’Oréal.

雖然貝當古一生的大部分時間都在幕后，但她長期以來一直努力讓人們忘記她的父親和丈夫在二戰(zhàn)前和二戰(zhàn)期間的反猶太活動及納粹關系污點：他們?yōu)橐恍┓ㄎ魉箞F體做出了政治宣傳，并給予物質支持，那些團體的一些成員戰(zhàn)后獲得了歐萊雅的庇護，這些都得到了充分記錄。

Regal, extroverted, a tireless socialite who loved balls and dinner parties, jewels and haute couture, Bettencourt was ranked by Forbes this year as the richest woman in the world, with her net worth put at $39.5 billion. She was the majority shareholder of L’Oréal, the world’s largest, most powerful cosmetics company.

貝當古華貴、外向，曾是一名不知疲倦的社交名媛，她喜歡舞會和宴會派對，以及珠寶和高級定制服裝。今年，《福布斯》雜志(Forbes)將她列為世界上最富有的女人，她的凈資產(chǎn)達395億美元。她是世界上規(guī)模和影響力最大的化妝品集團歐萊雅的大股東。

She was the only child of Eugène Schueller, a chemist who, in the kitchen of his Paris apartment in 1907, created a hair dye he called Auréale. His business, renamed L’Oréal in 1939, acquired Lancôme, Maybelline, Helena Rubinstein, Giorgio Armani and other brands, creating a giant that employs more than 77,000 people in 130 countries, had revenues of almost $26 billion in 2016 and is a prestigious economic engine for France.

她是藥劑師厄讓·許勒爾(Eugène Schueller)的獨生女。1907年，許勒爾在自己巴黎公寓的廚房里創(chuàng)造了一種被他稱為Auréale的染發(fā)劑。他的公司1939年更名為歐萊雅，后來又收購了蘭蔻(Lancôme)、美寶蓮(Maybelline)、赫蓮娜(Helena Rubinstein)和阿瑪尼(Giorgio Armani)等品牌，形成了一個化妝品帝國，它在130個國家擁有7.7萬多名員工，2016年的營業(yè)額近260億美元，是法國著名的經(jīng)濟引擎。

Liliane grew up in a cocoon of privilege and secrets. Her father was a Nazi sympathizer who acquired property taken from Jews in Germany, supported a French fascist organization in the 1930s that met at L’Oréal’s Paris headquarters, and founded a wartime movement against Bolshevism, Judaism and the Freemasons. He was spared from prosecution as a collaborationist by the intervention of political allies, including his future son-in-law, who claimed he had joined the Resistance and saved Jews.

利利亞娜在特權和秘密的籠罩下長大。她的父親是納粹同情者，曾在德國獲得了從猶太人那里奪取的財產(chǎn)，在20世紀30年代支持法國的一個法西斯組織——該組織在歐萊雅的巴黎總部會晤——他還曾發(fā)起了一場反對布爾什維克主義、猶太教和共濟會成員的戰(zhàn)時運動。由于政治盟友的干預——其中包括他未來的女婿，后者聲稱自己曾加入抵抗運動，救過猶太人——他被免于作為通敵者起訴。

In 1950, Liliane Schueller married André Bettencourt, the scion of an old Norman Roman Catholic family. He had been a virulently anti-Semitic propagandist early in the war — a role hidden most of his life behind the sanitizing record of his Resistance exploits in the final stages of the war. For these, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor and promoted as a war hero in a political career that lofted him to prominence as a Cabinet minister in several governments.

1950年，利利亞娜·許勒爾與安德烈·貝當古(André Bettencourt)成婚，后者是一個古老的諾曼羅馬天主教家族的后裔。安德烈在戰(zhàn)爭初期是一名惡毒的反猶太宣傳者——在他一生的大部分時間里，這段歷史被隱藏在他戰(zhàn)爭最后階段的英勇抵抗事跡的粉飾記錄里。因為那些事跡，他被授予英勇十字勛章(Croix de Guerre)，成為榮譽軍團(Legion of Honor)成員，并在政治事業(yè)中將自己宣傳成戰(zhàn)爭英雄，從而在多屆政府中擔任內(nèi)閣部長。

Eugène Schueller died in 1957, leaving his daughter billions and his controlling interest in L’Oréal. She became a director, but took a largely passive role as her father’s successors expanded the company around the world, ballooning the value of her holdings.

厄讓·許勒爾1957年去世，給女兒留下了數(shù)十億美元，以及對歐萊雅的控制權。她成了董事，但父親的繼任者們在世界各地擴張公司時，她大多是扮演被動角色。

She lived in great opulence. Her principal home, an Art Moderne mansion behind cream walls and towering pines in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was filled with antique treasures and paintings by Monet, Matisse, Picasso and Mondrian. She owned properties in many countries, yachts in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and an island in the Seychelles.

她的生活非常奢侈。她最主要的宅邸是位于塞納河畔訥伊的一個現(xiàn)代藝術風格的豪宅，它藏在奶油色墻壁和高聳的松樹背后，宅內(nèi)充斥著古董以及莫奈(Monet)、馬蒂斯(Matisse)、畢加索(Picasso)和蒙德里安(Mondrian)的畫作。她在許多國家擁有物業(yè)，在地中海和加勒比海擁有游艇，在塞舌爾擁有一個小島。

Her largesse was legendary. She gave millions to education, medical research, humanitarian projects, museums and the arts. She and her husband, who died in 2007, had long supported France’s conservative governments, and her soirées were a swirl of France’s social and political beau monde.

她的慷慨已經(jīng)成為傳奇。她曾捐贈數(shù)以百萬美元計的資金，用于教育、醫(yī)學研究、人道主義項目、博物館和藝術。她和丈夫——后者于2007年去世——長期以來一直支持法國的保守派政府，她的社交宴會聚集了法國社會和政治界的名流。

Riches From Cosmetics

從化妝品中獲得財富

Liliane Henriette Charlotte Schueller was born in Paris on Oct. 21, 1922, to Eugène Schueller and the former Louise Madeleine Berthe Doncieux. Her father, a university-trained chemist, had founded his company in 1909. His innovative dye had been a sensation: At a time when women could color their hair only black or red with natural dyes, it was one of the first stable synthetics to produce a range of subtle tints.

利利亞娜·亨利埃特·夏洛特·許勒爾于1922年10月21日出生于巴黎，父親是厄讓·許勒爾，母親原名路易絲·瑪?shù)氯R娜·貝爾特·當西厄(Louise Madeleine B erthe Doncieux)。她的父親是受過大學教育的化學家，1909年創(chuàng)立了自己的公司。他的創(chuàng)新染發(fā)劑曾經(jīng)引起轟動：當時女性只能用天然染料將頭發(fā)染成黑色或紅色，而他的染發(fā)劑屬于第一批能產(chǎn)生一系列微妙色彩的穩(wěn)定合成劑。

Liliane grew up with servants and tutors, a flow of VIPs through her spacious apartment on the Left Bank, Rolls-Royces and a sumptuous home overlooking the Brittany coast. Her mother died when she was 5, but her father took her along to his office on the Rue Royale and to his factories. At 15, she dabbled in an apprenticeship, learning to mix cosmetics and label bottles, but never seriously worked.

利利亞娜在仆人和家庭教師的陪伴下長大，眾多著名人物絡繹不絕地穿梭在她位于塞納河左岸的寬敞公寓、各式勞斯萊斯汽車，以及俯瞰布列塔尼海岸的豪華宅邸之間。她5歲時，母親去世，但父親經(jīng)常帶她去皇家路的辦公室和他的工廠。15歲時，她偶爾做做學徒，學習混合化妝品，給瓶子貼標簽，但她從未正式工作過。

Her marriage to André Bettencourt added political luster to the family. Between 1954 and 1973, he served in the Cabinets of Pierre Mendes-France, Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou, and in 1986 he was considered for prime minister by President François Mitterrand. He later joined L’Oréal and eventually became deputy chairman.

她與安德烈·貝當古的婚姻為這個家族增添了政治色彩。1954年至1973年，安德烈曾在皮埃爾·孟戴斯-弗朗斯(Pierre Mendes-France)、夏爾·戴高樂(Charles de Gaulle)和喬治·蓬皮杜(Georges Pompidou)的內(nèi)閣任職，1986年，總統(tǒng)弗朗索瓦·密特朗(FrançoisMitterrand)曾考慮任命他做總理。后來，他加入了歐萊雅集團，最終擔任副董事長。

But he resigned in 1994 after exposés revealed that he had joined a fascist group called La Cagoule (the Cowl) early in the war and had written 60 anti-Semitic articles for La Terre Française, a Nazi organ. He admitted writing them and voiced regret, citing “errors of youth.” He said he had tried to rectify his mistakes by joining the Resistance.

不過，1994年，他被爆出曾在戰(zhàn)爭初期加入過一個名叫“蒙頭斗篷”(La Cagoule)的法西斯團體，并為納粹出版物《法蘭西土地》(La Terre Française)寫了60篇反猶太文章。他承認寫過那些文章，并表示后悔，稱那是“年輕時犯的錯”。他說他已努力通過加入抵抗運動糾正自己的錯誤。

It also emerged that Liliane’s father, besides backing La Cagoule in the 1930s, had founded the anti-Semitic Revolutionary Social Movement during the war and acquired property in Karlsruhe, Germany, that had been seized from Jews who were later sent to Auschwitz, according to a lawsuit by descendants of the original owners. It eventually became L’Oréal’s headquarters in Germany.

利利亞娜的父親也被曝出，除了在20世紀30年代支持“蒙頭斗篷”之外，還在戰(zhàn)爭期間創(chuàng)立反猶太的革命社會運動(Revolutionary Social Movement)。他還在德國卡爾斯魯厄購買了從猶太人那里奪取的地產(chǎn)，那些猶太人后來被送到奧斯維辛集中營，相關地產(chǎn)原始所有者的后裔提起的訴訟披露稱。那塊地最終成了歐萊雅在德國的總部。

Liliane and André Bettencourt’s only child, Françoise, was born in 1953 and raised a Catholic. Unlike her mother, she was an intellectual, a pianist and author. She married Jean-Pierre Meyers, the grandson of a rabbi killed at Auschwitz, adopted her husband’s religion and raised her sons in Judaism.

利利亞娜和安德烈·貝當古唯一的孩子弗朗索瓦絲出生于1953年，作為天主教徒養(yǎng)大。和母親不同，她是一名知識分子、鋼琴師和作家。她嫁給了讓-皮埃爾·梅耶斯(Jean-Pierre Meyers)，后者是在奧斯威辛集中營遇害的一名拉比的孫輩，她改信丈夫的宗教，并將兒子培養(yǎng)成了猶太教徒。

After her father’s death in 2007, Bettencourt-Meyers filed a criminal complaint alleging that Banier, a 60-year-old photographer, had manipulated her mother for lavish gain.

2007年，父親去世后，貝當古-梅耶斯提起了刑事訴訟，指控60歲的攝影師巴尼耶操縱母親，攫取巨額利益。

In October 2011, a judge ordered Bettencourt placed under her daughter’s guardianship after a medical evaluation found she had dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

2011年10月，在醫(yī)療評估證明貝當古患有失智癥和阿爾茨海默病后，一名法官命令她由女兒監(jiān)護。

Under the decision, Bettencourt’s assets, including more than 30 percent of the voting shares of L’Oréal, were placed in a trust controlled by her daughter, while her grandson, Jean-Victor Meyers, was named to guard her health and personal affairs. In 2012, Bettencourt gave up her seat on L’Oréal’s board of directors and her grandson was appointed to the board.

根據(jù)該裁決，貝當古的資產(chǎn)，包括在歐萊雅逾30%的投票權，被置于由她女兒控制的信托基金中。該裁決還指定她的外孫讓-維克托·梅耶斯(Jean-Victor Meyers)維護她的健康和個人事務。2012年，貝當古放棄了她在歐萊雅董事會的席位，她的外孫被任命為董事會成員。

Bettencourt is survived by her daughter and Meyers, as well as another grandson.

貝當古在世的親人包括女兒和兩名外孫。