Short Takes : Delon Sells Art for $7 Million

PARIS — Actor Alain Delon, the heartthrob and screen tough guy who has dominated French film for more than three decades, sold 32 paintings at a Paris auction Sunday for a total of $7 million.

Delon sold his most valuable painting of the day, a 1910 Modigliani portrait of a young woman, for $1.2 million, the Drouot auction house said.

The entire sale, including works by other art lovers, fetched $18 million, with the most expensive painting, Picasso’s “The Yellow Belt,” going for about $5 million.

Delon has said he is selling part of his collection to pay for his March 25 purchase, with French steel magnate Francis Bouygues, of Modigliani’s record-breaking “The Pretty Shopkeeper,” sold for $12 million.

“It was an act of madness. She (“The Pretty Shopkeeper”) seduced me, and was certainly the most expensive woman of my life,” Delon said.