Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife, Carla Bruni, were clearly taken with President Barack Obama and his family back in 2011.
The Sarkozys gave the Obamas more than $41,000 worth of presents that year, becoming the most prolific foreign gift-givers to the first family, documents released on Friday show.
The gifts ranged from designer golf and travel bags and fine crystal to soaps and perfumes, according to the State Department’s Office of Protocol, which catalogs gifts to US officials from foreign leaders
and publishes an annual accounting, often one or two years late due to processing.
Among the goodies presented to the Obamas by the Sarkozys were a large black Hermes golf accessory bag worth USD 7,750, two Baccarat crystal table lamps on silver pedestals worth $5,500, two Baccarat crystal statuettes depicting golfers, a monogrammed black leather Louis Vuitton business bag, his-and-hers Christian Dior bathrobes and a black leather Dior clutch.
Sarkozy also gave Obama a glass sculpture of Alexander the Great’s horse, a Lacoste shirt, a fountain pen and, perhaps in a nod to his tobacco-using days, a Ligne 8 lighter.
But don’t expect the Obamas to furnish a post-White House residence with the items, because under law, most nonperishable gifts to the president and other US officials must be transferred to the National Archives or General Services Administration unless the recipient reimburses the Treasury for their estimated value.