La Maison Guerlain, the ornately gilded Art Nouveau perfumery at 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, is redolent of grand luxe. It is, after all, the home of the country’s oldest perfume-maker. But this week customers could be excused if they perceived a bit of stench as they perused the store’s scented gloves—specifically, the foul odor coming from new developments in the sordid elder-abuse scandal surrounding Jean-Paul Guerlain, 85, the family’s last master perfumer, who has a form of Alzheimer’s, and his relationship with Christina Kragh, his companion.
Stéphane Guerlain, 61, his only son and legal guardian, has been summoned to appear before the correctional court of Versailles on January 17. He faces criminal charges of willful violence, moral harassment, making death threats, and subjecting a vulnerable person to “housing conditions incompatible with human dignity.”
