Furniture fraud that tied to Versailles Palace

In early 2010, two richly decorated chairs, which were said to have once belonged to the basis of Versailles Palace, appeared on the French antique market.

Considered to be the most expensive chairs made for the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, they were stamped with the seal of Nikola-Kuinibert Folio, celebrated-or carpenter-who worked in Paris in the 1700s.

A significant find, the couple was declared “national treasures” by the French government in 2013 at the request of Versailles.

The palace, which shows such items in its huge collection of museums, expressed interest in buying chairs, but the price is considered too expensive.

Instead, they were sold to Qataric Prince Mohammed bin Hamad al -Thani for a € 2 million view (£ 1.67 million).

The chairs make up a remarkable number of royal furniture from the 18th century, which have appeared on the antique market in the last few years.

Other objects included another set of chairs that were alleged to be sitting in one of Marie Antoinette’s cameras in Versailles; A separate couple, which is said to have belonged to Madame du Barry, King Louis XV’s mistress; King Louis XVI’s sister, Princess Elisabeth; and a pair of Mountain – Or feces – which belong to the daughter of King Louis XV, Princess Luz Elizabeth.

Most of them were purchased from Versailles to show up at their museum collection while a chair was sold to the wealthy Guerrand-Hermès family.

But in 2016, this assortment of royal chairs will become a national scandal that will shake the French world of antiques, bringing trade in bad faith.

The reason? The chairs were actually all the counterfeits.

In the scandal, he saw one of the leading antiquity experts in France, Georges “Bill” Palot and awarded the Cabinet, Bruno Denues, sued on charges of fraud and money laundering after a nine -year investigation.

Galleri Kramer and his director Laurent Kramer were also accused of fraud by gross negligence for selling some of the chairs – something they both deny.

All three defendants are ready to appear in a Pontooise court, near Paris on Wednesday after a lawsuit in March. Pallot and d -n desnoues have admitted to their crimes, while G -N Kraemer and his gallery challenge the accusation of fraud by gross negligence.

Considered to be the best scientist in the 18th century French chairs, after writing the authoritative book on the topic, Mr. Palot was often summoned by Versailles, among others, to give his expert opinion on whether historical objects are a real deal. He was even called as an expert witness in the French courts when there was doubt about the authenticity of an item.

His accomplice, D -n Desnoues, was a decorated cabinet manufacturer and a sculptor who won a number of prestigious awards, including the best sculptor in France in 1984 and was hired as the main restorer of Versailles furniture.

As he spoke in court in March, Palot said the scheme began as a “joke” with d -desnoues in 2007 to check that they could repeat an armchair that already work on the recovery belonging to Madame Du Barry.

Masters of their crafts, they managed the feat, convincing other experts that it was the president of the period.

And embedded in their success, they began to do more.

Describing how they went to construct the chairs, the two described in the court of how, Palot gained wooden frames at different auctions for low prices, while the desnoues ages the tree in its workshop to make others.

They were then sent for gilding and upholstery before g -n desnoues added designs and wood covering. He added stamps from some of the great workers of the 18th century furniture who were falsified or taken from real furniture from the period.

After they finished, Palot sold them through galleries such as Kramer and one in which he worked, Didier Aaron. They will then be sold to auction houses like Sotheby’s of London and Drouot of Paris.

“I was the head and Denues were the hands,” Mr. Palot smiled before the court.

“It went like a breeze,” he added. “Everything was fake, but the money.”

Prosecutors claim that the two men made a profit of over € 3 million from the forged chairs -although G -n -n -n -n -desnoues calculated their profits in a lower amount of 700,000 euros. The income has been deposited with foreign bank accounts, prosecutors said.

The lawyers representing Versailles told the BBC that G -n Palot, a lecturer at the Sorbonne, was able to mislead the institution because of his privileged access to the documentation and archives of Versailles and the Louvre Museum as part of his academic research.

A statement by the team of lawyer Corinn Herskovic said that thanks to the “in -depth knowledge” of the Palot for the reserves of royal furniture, registered as existed in Versailles in the 18th century, he was able to determine which objects were missing from the collections and then made them with the help of G -n Denues.

The desnoues also had access to original chairs, from which he made copies, added that “allowing him to produce counterfeits that have the entire visual appearance of authentic, to the inventory numbers and the labels of the period.”

“The fraudulent connection between these two professionally achieved men, recognized by their peers, has made it possible to mislead the French institutions who consider them partners and to convey their confidence, thus damaging the reputation of Versailles and his curators,” they said.

Prosecutor Pascal Rayer said the process emphasized the need for a more stable regulation of the art market, and also enlightens light on the standards that antiquity dealers should follow.

The court heard the authorities were signaled about the scheme when the luxurious lifestyle of a Portuguese man and his partner attracted the attention of the French authorities.

Asked by police about the acquisition of real estate in France and Portugal worth 1.2 million euros, while in an income of about € 2,500 a month, the man – who turned out to be working as a master in the Paris galleries – acknowledged his role as an intermediary who cooperates in furniture fraud, AFP news agency reports. The money was then followed by investigators to D -n desnoues and d -n -pallot.

Some of the initially charged charges in the case, including the intermediaries, have later charged them.

But the accusations against Laurent Kramer and Galleri Kramer, which sold to some of the wrought chairs of collectors such as Versailles and Qatar Prince Al Thani, were supported.

Prosecutors say that while the gallery itself may have been deceived in the first purchase of fake pieces, G -N -Kamer and the gallery were “grossly careless”, failing to check the authenticity of the items before selling them to high prices collectors.

In his closing arguments, prosecutor G -N Rayer said that, based on the reputation and contacts of the Kramer galleries, they could bring furniture to Versailles or Louvre to compare them.

“They could also hire other experts, gave pledged sums and take into account the opacity of the origin of the chairs.”

Speaking to court, a lawyer representing G -N -Kamer and the gallery, he insists that his client “be a victim of fraud, not an accomplice,” stating that he had never had direct contact with the counterfeiters.

In a statement to the BBC, lawyers Martin Raynaud and Mauricia Korege added: “The gallery was not complicit in counterfeit, the gallery did not know that the furniture was fake and could not find it.”

“Like the Château de Versailes and the specialists who classified furniture as national treasures, the Kraemer gallery was the victim of counterfeiters,” they added.

“We expect the decision to admit this.”

The BBC contacted G -n Pallot’s lawyer for comment. The BBC failed to get to the D -Desnoues or his lawyer.