US artist buys French ghost village

Courbefy village, 30 miles from Limoges, was abandoned in 2008 by its previous owner owing to bankruptcy. 

It was the village no one wanted: an abandoned hamlet of 21 buildings including the ruins of a 13th century castle, a chapel, an empty swimming pool, overgrown tennis courts and falling down stables in the unspoilt central region of Limousin.

But on Monday the ghost village of Courbefy, 30 miles from Limoges, went under the hammer for a second time and was bought by an American photographer.

The buyer, a South Korean-born artist whose name is Ahae, was not present for the auction in which he made the final bid at €520,000, nearly €200,000 more than the asking price.Paul Gerardin, a lawyer for the French bank credit Agricole, which repossessed Courbefy when its previous owners went broke, said there were two other bidders, a Belgian and an Irishman who wanted to use the village for a reality TV show.

Courbefy first went under the auctioneer's hammer in February, but failed to attract a single bid. At the time Jean-Pierre Chateau, who lives nearby, told Le Figaro newspaper that it was "heartbreaking" to see the place abandoned. He said it once had a unique atmosphere with "village festivals held right up until the 1960s".

Chateau said villagers, most of whom were farmers, began moving out in the 1970s. In the 1990s there was an attempt to turn Courbefy into a holiday village, complete with hotels and restaurants, but the expensive plan was eventually abandoned in 2008. Since then Courbefy has been left to nature and, according to Le Figaro, abandoned to thieves and squatters.

Ahae, based in New York, specialises in landscape photography and has an exhibition at the Louvre next month. He has not said what he intends to do with the village 280 miles south-west of Paris.

[guardian.co.uk]