Auctioning off the remains of a chanteur's lifeJACQUES BREL (pictured below) was a celebrated French chanteur with a lean, well-lived-in face, best known for the sad songs he wrote about people who were unfulfilled in love and life. He was a romantic figure, a drinker and a smoker, who died of lung cancer at the age of 49 and was buried in Polynesia within a few yards of Paul Gauguin's grave. The flavour of his work is well captured by the lyrics of one of his best-known songs, called Amsterdam....
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