Artist Sarko Senior denies rift with son

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's father Pal Sarkozy de Nagy Bocsa has embarked on a new career as an artist. And this week the 80-year-old will exhibit his work, described by one French magazine as "erotico-mystico-animist", at a gallery in Madrid. His son (pictured) will not be in attendance, however Sarkozy pere insists that this is because of work commitments and not due to any bad feeling between the two – a number of biographies of the president have claimed a rift exists between the two men dating back to his Sarkozy senior's decision to leave his mother when his son was a three year old (he is alleged not have given the family any financial support).

Of these rumours, Pal says: "I don't read these books because there are so many lies in them. At the start I was upset by them, but Nicolas calmed me down a bit. They're grotesque, but I won’t sue because that would just give them more publicity."

Pal, described by the Sunday Times as a Hungarian aristocrat, fled his native country after the Second World War fearing he would be sent to a gulag. After a short spell in the Foreign Legion, he came to Paris to be a painter. This proved difficult, and so he made a living designing adverts for Singer sewing machines, and also invented one of the first anti-wrinkle creams. He says he's delighted to be able to return to his first passion, but even though one of the sponsors of the show is the state-run French Institute, and the mayor of Madrid is hosting a dinner for 350 people in his honour, he denies he's cashing in on his son's fame.

"In no way do I want to profit from the president of republic," he says. "I want to establish my name as an artist. Perhaps I, or my son, should change our surname."

The paintings, which have a price tag of £24,000, sound interesting. One, Vice and Virtue, depicts a lightly-clad blonde figure, hands tied wearing suspenders. Pal explain the work thus: "There are loose women who are very virtuous who have a pure soul."