News As decreed on December 31, 2004, the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, has raised Severin Wunderman, owner of Corum, to the level of Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of honor. The medal was given to him on June 17, 2005 in Paris, in the salons of the Minister of Culture and Communication, by his Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.
This honor, given to Severin Wunderman by France, is the reward for his numerous acts, both cultural and philanthropic. Born in Belgium in 1938, he was forced during the second World War to seek exile in the United States, where he later became an American citizen. Thanks to his exceptional adaptive qualities, he became very successful in the business world. From his youth, when he was just an apprentice watchmaker, he was attracted by art and culture and showed a certain taste for the works of Jean Cocteau - a taste that would later be confirmed after a meeting with the artist’s heir, Edouard Dermit.
As soon as his personal fortune allowed him, Severin Wundermann developed a philanthropic and humanitarian action to which he dedicates 13 to 17% of his annual earnings. He created and financed diverse foundations: "Change a life" and "Severin Wunderman Family"; the first for aiding people of merit who are in either morale or material distress by donations or endowments; the other for financing fundamental research for incurable illnesses. With Steven Spielberg, he founded "The Severin Wunderman Collection of Child Survivor Testimonies from the holocaust: The children speak to children". At the same time, he realized a dream: create a Cocteau Museum, the "Severin Wunderman Family Museum", situated in Orange County.
Knowing the ties that linked Cocteau with the city of Menton, he suggested the idea of creating an even more ambitious museum dedicated to this artist. A museum in which would be exposed his graphic and pictorial works that, according to Severin Wunderman, are not yet appreciated for their true worth. He therefore offered to the Deputy-Mayor of Menton to give a donation to the city of over two hundred Cocteau works that he owns. These works will therefore be exposed in a magnificent architectural showcase built on the coast. The inauguration is foreseen in the coming years.
Severin Wunderman’s immense Cocteau collection, comprised of over 2000 works, is distributed between the "Severin Wunderman Family Museum" in California, the future "Musée Cocteau de Menton", and the private collection of this philanthropist which is spread out between his various residences. Of these numerous works, 255 will soon be leaving on a tour of Japan where they will be exposed in different museums until June 2006.
July 01, 2005
