Josette Day

Sold her mansion on the 6 Rue Alberic Magnard for 4.1 million francs to the government of Thailand, which has converted it into an embassy. She acquired the property after her husband Maurice Solvay passed away. The residence, built in 1927, is a two-and-a-half story building that includes total of 10 bedrooms. Many important guests stayed there, such as Her Majesty Queen Sirikit on a number of occasions. [1967]

Paris-born Josette Day debuted in films at the age of five, but soon returned to the stage, including a stint as a child dancer in the Paris Opera. She did not return to the screen until she was into her adulthood, and her career took off. She played leads in countless French films, but is probably best known for the role of Beauty in Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946) (US title: "Beauty and the Beast"). She had an affair with Marcel Pagnol. It is to be noted that several English-language sources stated that Day had married and divorced from director Marcel Pagnol; however French sources have discredited this claim.

Widow of Maurice Solvay, a multi-millionaire Belgian chemical magnate and descendant of the creator of the "Solvay Process". He was reported to be "one of the richest men in Europe". He died at age 62 (June 1960) in Paris, France. She first met Maurice when he knocked on her door, appearing beggarly, for help to shelter him from the Gestapo during World War II. (Friends had given Josette's address to wounded resistance fighters). Soon after the Allies had entered Paris, he left and Josette knew neither his name nor his address, and it took almost a year for Maurice to came back and thank her; they would later marry in 1950. In February 1959 while on cruise in the Pacific, she and Maurice met a Tahitian girl at a Papeete market named Hinano Tiatia, whom the couple took under legal guardianship for a later adoption. Hinano was the center of Maurice's multi-million dollar inheritance dispute as Maurice had died suddenly in 1960 before the couple could formally adopt her, and his family was contesting a portion of his fortune that Josette insists should go to Hinano.

The French newspaper Le Monde ran a correction (on 2 July 1978) of her obituary, stating that the union of Josette Day and Marcel Pagnol "was never consecrated by a marriage.

Under her married name (as Josette Day Solvay, Josette Day-Solvay, or Madame Maurice Solvay), she owned several ancient collections valued for several thousands of dollars that have been displayed and sold to exhibits and auctions. Some such pieces include, the "Bound Captive" stone statue depicting a male torso with hands bound behind his back; it is believed to be second century A.D. made either during the classical or Egyptian periods and valued at £350,000 as reported in Isuu magazine (2009). Books of her ancient art and furniture collections have been published from 2000-2003 in French.

Her husband Maurice Solvay was a descendant of the Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay, who developed the "Solvay Process" (or ammonia-soda process). The Solvay company was one of the earliest chemical multinationals and today is among the world's largest chemical companies generating billions of dollars in revenues and sales (as of 2014).