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How did two big names in the art world manage to deceive leading antique dealers, and even the Ch\u00e2teau 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.<\/p>\n
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To understand this scam, we have to go back to 2007<\/strong>. Bill Pallot<\/strong>, an art historian, former specialist in French chairs and son of an antique dealer nicknamed \u2018P\u00e8re Lachaise\u2019, joined forces with Bruno Desnoues<\/strong>, a graduate of the \u00c9cole sup\u00e9rieure des arts d\u00e9coratifs 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Based in the workshop of cabinet-maker Bruno Desnoues, the two partners set about creating fake chairs<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n An 18th-century chair from one of Marie-Antoinette’s cabinets in Versailles, stamped by Georges Jacob, was quickly sold to the Guerrand-Herm\u00e8s family by Drouot for \u20ac530,000. In 2011, Sotheby’s sold its cabinet sister to the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles for \u20ac420,000. The historic monument added to its collection a pair of chairs (\u20ac840,000) by Louis Delanois from the salon de compagnie of the Countess du Barry, the last favourite of King Louis XV.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nFake chairs sold to leading specialists<\/h2>\n