Gerard Depardieu may sell all his assets in France including his vineyards© AFP/File Wojtek RadwanskiGerard Depardieu may sell all his assets in France including his vineyards

Paris (AFP) – Having left France, actor Gerard Depardieu said he is now considering selling everything he owns in the country, which “I no longer want to be part of.”

Acclaimed as one of the greatest French actors of his generation, the 66-year-old fell out of love with France in 2012 when he moved abroad to escape a new 75-percent tax rate on top earners.

He took up residency in Belgium, was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin, and has since delighted in scandalising his compatriots.

“The tax authorities piss me off,” he told the TV Magazine of the daily Le Figaro in an interview published Friday.

“I think that I’m going to sell everything in France. I no longer want to be part of this country, even if I like the French. Apart from journalists who are in the government’s pay.”

Depardieu owns vineyards in France, and has also invested in several restaurants in Paris.

Asked what exactly he would sell, Depardieu responded: “Everything.”

“I just want to leave this country. It’s not because of local taxes. I don’t agree with how the money from our taxes is used,” he said.

“So I no longer want to own properties. I just want to go elsewhere, rent a place, live and die. And work with people I love.”

Depardieu’s friendship with Putin and with Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov have caused controversy.

In the interview, Depardieu said he currently lived in Italy but would soon move to Belarus, whose hardline President Alexander Lukashenko he described as a “nice guy.”