THE MUSE
Rue de Babylone; RIVE GAUCHE, 1972
Settled in her Penthouse Apartment on the Bohemian Left Bank, Salome was feted by Helmut Newton, Saint Laurent, Guy Bourdin, and Muse to the Avant Garde of the Age.
Her Private rooms played host to a series of lovers from The Aga Khan to The Rolling Stones and Satre, in scenes set to seduce designed by a famed Art Director, renowned for conjuring magic in Palaces and Seats of Power. I was greeted by Deep Rouge Lacquer Walls and Venetian Plaster Ceilings, giving backdrop settings to beaten metal Day Beds and Old World Heirlooms passed down by her Art collecting forebears.
She lay on woven animal tapestries, piled onto a Day Bed, which, I’m told was gifted by a Hollywood Studio Tycoon. Her nude body was wrapped in Clouds of Frankincense which hung in the perfumed air undisturbed by the gilded grass cloth fans, held still and aloft on fine leather spears. The soft light from a large ancient Oracle like bowl pierced the air; It was only then that I realised we were not alone; Her famed African Eunuch Twins cast a protective eye over my silhouette as I stood in the open doorway awaiting permission to enter