Letter from Paris presents...Paris Art Market Buzz

By Contributing Editor Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

Drouot’s Dirty Laundry

Paris weather has been unexpectedly bright and clear this week after a long period of grey winter frostiness, and the mood in the auction world seems accordingly rather upbeat. The specialized art press recently released optimistic auction results for 2010 and reminded us that Paris is regaining her rightful place on the international art and auction scene, the top ten auction houses in Paris having enjoyed a 41 per cent increase in sale activity over 2009. The Paris opening of a new gallery by contemporary art demigod Larry Gagosian (in the building flanking Christie’s) last fall all but sealed her newfound international reputation. Although rather begrudgingly if one paid heed to the snobbish coverage the opening received from some bitter journalists who were happy to drink his champagne.

Then there is Drouot. A uniquely Parisian animal which despite the huge scandal of alleged organized theft on the part of the manual staff (cols rouges) which exploded in December 2009 when eight of them and one auctioneer were arrested (See Paris Art Market Buzz, January 17 2010), has muddled through 2010 as if it was business as usual. Total transactions reached 441 million euros, a modest increase of 7.5 per cent over 2009. (Source: Journal des Arts, No. 339) The continuing investigation has since taken on immense proportions as more solid evidence of the generalized theft and corruption surfaced, Ministerial reports and recommendations have been drafted, tempers and egos have flared. Last September the entire company of 110 cols rouges (red collars), called the UCHV, was ordered by a judge to cease its activity as de facto sole provider of transport and manual organization of the auctions at the Hotel Drouot, a highly dramatic move which shocked even the most cynical of Paris auction observers like myself. The entire team was apparently jobless from one day to the next. Anyone even remotely familiar with French labour market practices would find this stunning. And this was just the tip of the iceberg.

What is lurking behind that tree?

A tell-all book recently published by a journalist privy to highly confidential (really?) documents from the ongoing investigation, Michel Deléan, entitled Adjugé, Volé: Chronique d’un Trafic à Drouot (Sold, stolen: Story of Trafficking at Drouot) recounts in black and white the entire shocking debacle. The author paints a very grim and detailed picture through direct quotes from interrogations by officers of the OCBC (a special bureau of the French Gendamerie specialised in investigating trafficking of art and cultural artifacts) of several cols rouges as well as one auctioneer with close ties to the affair. Other sources include transcripts of legally bugged telephone conversations between cols rouges under suspicion and revelations in the press in some cases more than 25 years ago. Although the author has omitted using the names of the suspects under the presumption of innocence of an ongoing investigation the information in the book, if accurate, is more than a bit damning.

The basic story goes like this: the cols rouges once under interrogation have admitted overtly to having participated in a system of institutionalised theft within the closed community of their company UCHV, but with the complicity of many of the auctioneers at Drouot who either closed a blind eye or overtly assisted them. The usual technique would be to take mental note of objects of lesser value not included on the official inventory during a succession when the commissaire-priseur (auctioneer) would presumably make his round of the home to note down all of the objects to be sold. The head of the team of the cols rouges would note the thoroughness of the auctioneer as well as his personality to judge whether or not it would be possible to “set aside” a few objects without being detected. Usually the small objects and household items of lesser value are placed in plastic crates known as manettes to be sold “as is” in the Drouot auction room. Anyone familiar with Drouot has seen the free-for-all lunge forward of the public in the sale room when the manettes are offered.

Here is where the cols rouges would make their move, presenting their own manettes which they selected during the inventory of the home. Although this case blew open with the attempted sale of a Gustave Courbet painting (see Paris Art Market buzz ibid.), auctioning of dusty and far less glamorous items in this way seemed to be more the staple of the process. Another technique involved actually waiting until the goods arrived at Drouot, sometimes even in the sale room, and finding a way to “misplace” them behind a painting, or in the back stockroom. The cols rouges were responsible for transporting the goods, storing them and setting them up for the pre-sale expo, as well as handling them during the actual auction and hence had ample opportunities to “lose” things. Part of the process involved waiting to see whether anyone (seller, auctioneer or buyer) would notice the missing items. Should anyone make a claim, the employee would simply replace it and reply that it had been lost in the stockroom.

In most cases, the cols rouges set ground rules such as waiting at least six months (or up to ten years for important items) to put things in the auction room so as not to attract attention. They possess storage containers outside Paris for this express purpose which the police are still examining. The proceeds from these illicit sales were then equally divided amongst the team (usually three) involved, or in cases of more important sums, the entire union of 110 members. Fortunately for the investigators, several of the cols rouges kept detailed written records of each and every transaction, the date of the theft, the sale, the amount, and more importantly, those who benefited. One even went as far as to enter the information into spreadsheets on his computer. Now that’s efficiency!

Manettes in a Drouot Pre-sale Expo

In one very audacious case, the col rouge in question found a loose diamond in the presentation tray at a jewelry auction he was assisting. It had clearly fallen from one of the rings sold that day. During his hesitation (how moral) of what to do, the buyer of a ring at the auction loudly proclaimed that a stone was missing from his lot. Rather than admit to his find, the col rouge decided spontaneously to throw the diamond on the floor, taking the chance that the buyer might eventually find it, but also assuring a reward should he not. The unhappy bidder for the ring never did find his diamond, which was of course thrown conveniently under the podium, and the col rouge rapidly sold it to an unknowing diamond dealer for the disappointing sum of €1800.

In another spectacular (and one-off) example back in 2006, the cols rouges were able to procure two pieces of seemingly ordinary art deco furniture (a desk and a small round occasional table) from an uninhabited furnished apartment with the help of the concierge who had the keys. (They selected these from a group of items already pre-marked as unimportant.) They placed the furniture in an uncatalogued ordinary auction at Drouot, with the tacit agreement of the auctioneer, and to their shock and delight, the pieces fetched close to one million euros. The auctioneer in question admitted during his interrogation that he was unaware of the importance and rareness of the items and had started bidding at €200! He was shocked and confused when bidding skyrocketed and feared that there had been a mistake. The mistake was on his side: connoisseurs recognized the two pieces as the work of famed Irish art deco designer Eileen Gray (1878-1978) whose Dragon Chair set a new record of € 21 900 000 at the Christie’s auction of the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Berger in February 2009. The story has become urban legend at Drouot and one of the cols rouges is rumored to have opened a brasserie with the proceeds, quitting his job, while maintaining his statute in the union. Quite a deal.

Dragon Chair by Eileen Gray, Yves Saint-Laurent-Pierre Berger Collection 2009

The author spins a compelling if not pathetic tale and one feels almost sorry for some of the protagonists put under pressure. Their expressions of naiveté concerning the affair, “everyone knew it,” “the entire system is corrupt from top to bottom,” “everyone is guilty,” are revealing of a corporatist culture turned sour. The responsibility of the auctioneers in all of this has been left somewhat vague with the exception of the one young gentleman who was actually arrested (and released) during the sting in December 2009. The author concludes that to last fall, seven auctioneers had been designated as having willingly and actively participated in the system and 26 others to a lesser extent. The company of the cols rouges (UCHV) will have to be liquidated and recreated in a new form which will include more reliable systems of corporate governance, including an actual hierarchy of responsibility to avoid wide-spread malfunctions in the future. No decision has been made on whether or not there will be a trial or which form it would take but the investigation continues, rendering the entire situation even more surreal.

While strolling through Drouot this week I noticed that the blue-clad workers (or smurfs as they were nicknamed) who were hired to replace the forlorn cols rouges are now sporting a red polo shirt with Drouot printed on the back in bold white letters. Not quite the same allure as the grey Nehru jackets with red collars from before, but a tad closer to the Drouot brand than bright blue. A receptionist at Drouot confided to me that she didn’t much care for the new look but did prefer it to the smurf tee-shirts. Oh the pangs of institutional change.

Hard at Work During An Auction At Drouot

A Drouot Mix-up With a Royal Ending

On a happier note, during an auction held by SVV Aguttes at Drouot on the 11th of February, an important and curious piece of Sèvres porcelain set a new record. The story behind the little pitcher is fascinating and a typical Drouot scenario. When the owner first brought the piece amidst a group of “bibelots” destined for an uncatalogued auction (perhaps in a manette?), the auctioneer identified a certain originality and asked the advice of an external ceramics expert, a common practice. The latter failed to recognize the importance and provenance of the pitcher and sent it to an ordinary sale with a low estimate of €200 - €300. The in-house ceramics specialist, however, did take interest in the piece though and decided to include it in a catalogued higher-end sale in December 2010 with photos, yet still kept the same estimate.

Once the catalogue published, several specialists outside the house immediately recognised the importance of the pitcher and knew of its royal provenance: the service created for Marie-Antoinette’s laiterie (dairy) at the Chateau de Rambouillet. The service, created in 1787 by the Royal Sèvres Manufactory, included 65 pieces of which only 17 are known today. The décor features goats, cows and other animals associated with milk, and is in the gout étrusque favored by the Queen at the time and inspired by the collection of antique Etruscan vases brought back to France by the then diplomat Vivant Denon (1747-1825). The bold pale-orange ground on the neck and bottom as well as the shaped goats-head of the handle are highly original, the work of painter Jean-Jacques Lagrenée. The new estimate of €200 000 (revised for the February auction) was largely surpassed when the little wonder reached €1 091 000 including fees. This story has a spectacular Royal end. Apparently the heart of Drouot is still beating.