Scandal in the art world. More than 15 years ago, two renowned specialists in their field duped buyers and collectors by making fake period chairs, which were bought for tens and hundreds of thousands of euros. Today, the ingenious forgers are facing trial in Pontoise alongside a gallery owner and a resident of Sarcelles.
How did two big names in the art world manage to deceive leading antique dealers, and even the Château de Versailles, with so-called 17th and 18th century furniture that was nothing more than a fake? Let’s take a look back at a story that is as fascinating as it is implausible, and which has rocked the artistic and cultural world in recent years.
The coming together of two swindlers
To understand this scam, we have to go back to 2007. Bill Pallot, an art historian, former specialist in French chairs and son of an antique dealer nicknamed ‘Père Lachaise’, joined forces with Bruno Desnoues, a graduate of the École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg and Meilleur Ouvrier de France. But this alliance was not the result of a relationship based on a passion for fine furniture. The two men, renowned in their field, actually decided to fool the great specialists in the world of art by making fake period chairs.
Based in the workshop of cabinet-maker Bruno Desnoues, the two partners set about creating fake chairs from old carcasses, allowing the wood to be authentically dated. Backed by a solid network and a well-established reputation, Pallot and Desnoues sell these certified pieces of furniture and weave fictional stories around them. Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, the Duchess du Barry… all names that have seduced collectors and the greatest cultural institutions.
Fake chairs sold to leading specialists
An 18th-century chair from one of Marie-Antoinette’s cabinets in Versailles, stamped by Georges Jacob, was quickly sold to the Guerrand-Hermès family by Drouot for €530,000. In 2011, Sotheby’s sold its cabinet sister to the Château de Versailles for €420,000. The historic monument added to its collection a pair of chairs (€840,000) by Louis Delanois from the salon de compagnie of the Countess du Barry, the last favourite of King Louis XV.
Click here to read the full article on Luxus Magazine.
Featured photo : © Unsplash
