According to the AFP news agency, 59-year-old Bill Pallot, a French art expert known for his media appearances in a three-piece suit, was told by the judge yesterday that his case must be heard.
With a woodworker
Pallot, together with five others, is suspected of forging French antique furniture between 2008 and 2015. According to AFP, this is one of the biggest scandals in the art world in recent years.
Pallot is said to have put together chairs together with a well-known woodworker. The art expert then sold it. He said it was furniture on which, for example, Madame du Barry, Louis XV’s mistress, had sat. That turned out not to be true. Yet the chairs sold for enormous sums.
The scandal came to light in 2016. The Minister of Culture immediately launched an investigation into the purchasing policy of the Palace of Versailles, which had also purchased the chairs.
It is not the only incident in the French art world in recent years. Last year, the former director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, was suspected of corruption. He is said to have purchased illegally stolen art from the Middle East.
2023-11-16 00:41:30
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