Breakup at Tiffany’s

The small cemetery is surrounded by fields, farmland and vineyards. A simple stone cross marks a flower-strewn grave, the final resting place of one of the world’s most beloved actresses. Audrey Hepburn spent the last 30 years of her life in this quiet Swiss village, and she wanted to be buried here in a cemetery close to her sprawling 19th century house.

The actress, who died of colon cancer in January 1993, liked the simplicity of Tolochenaz, located 40 km east of Geneva. But her legacy has fueled a conflict between her sons and some residents of the village.

The focus of contention is an old two-room schoolhouse near the cemetery, which the villagers and Hepburn’s two sons had converted into a small museum commemorating her work as an actress and a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. The sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, who run the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, also donated family photographs, original film posters, the best-actress Oscar that Hepburn won in 1953 for Roman Holiday, and other memorabilia. Opened in October 1996 and staffed by volunteers, the museum immediately began attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. Busloads of tourists snapping pictures of Hepburn’s grave and home — which is now owned by another family — became as much a part of the sleepy village’s picturesque landscape as centuries-old houses and farms. To date €258,000 — mostly from admission fees and the sale of souvenirs — has been donated to various children’s charities. “We have been given an exceptional opportunity to help needy children,” says Franca Price, the museum’s director. “We felt this was totally in line with what Audrey would have wanted.”

But clouds have been hanging over Tolochenaz. Hepburn’s sons had asked that their mother’s belongings be returned to them after five years. Without them, the exhibit will close at the end of this month. Some residents feel betrayed. “This really hurts, because after all the hard work we have to give up Audrey’s legacy,” says Elisabeth Mayor, a former neighbor of Hepburn’s.

Ferrer, 42, who now lives in Los Angeles, says the villagers have known all along that the belongings would be on loan for only five years. “We have completed our commitment, but when we wanted the objects back, people went crazy,” he says. Ferrer believes the locals don’t want to let go of the exhibit because of the “celebrity status” it bestows on the village. “It’s like the little town that roared,” he says. “Tens of thousands of people come here who would not otherwise.” He and Dotti, 32, who lives in Rome, are also upset by what they see as “overcommercialization” of the site, with tourists trekking from the gravesite to the museum and across the field to Hepburn’s old house, sometimes even attempting to scale the moss-and-ivy-covered stone wall around the property to get a better look. Ferrer says that for a time there was even a sign at the cemetery pointing the way to the museum. “This whole thing got out of hand,” he says. “This is my mother’s resting place, not Graceland.” The sons also objected to the sale of “Audrey Hepburn” chocolates, lavender from her garden, pots of homemade jam from local fruit and paintings of the house.

Françoise Meier, whose daughter went to the village elementary school with Ferrer, says the charges of commercialization “are ridiculous. There’s nothing trashy about what we sell at the museum. And nobody profits from tourism. We have no shops, and the only restaurant is in a place no tourist would find.”

Though no compromise has been reached and both sides are bitter, a glimmer of hope may be in sight. The locals are determined to continue using the museum for other as yet unspecified projects that would raise money for children’s causes, thus keeping Hepburn’s memory alive. Some of the actress’s memorabilia will remain, such as her famous black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, donated by the French designer Hubert de Givenchy. “As difficult as it will be to see Audrey’s things disappear, we don’t want to start a war in Tolochenaz,” Price says. “Maybe we should just let her rest in peace.” So there is one thing both parties agree on: that harmony be restored to the quiet village that was once Hepburn’s refuge.