Oct 31, 2023 at 10:30 PM Update: 3 minutes ago
A French art dealer was in court on Tuesday accused of defrauding an elderly couple. The man paid the couple 150 euros for an African mask. Six months later, the mask fetched 4.2 million euros at auction.
It concerns a wooden mask from Gabon, reports BBC News. The trader found the mask in the couple’s home when he searched their house in Alès, southern France, at their request at the end of 2021. He offered the couple 150 euros for the piece of art. The man and the woman, who are both in their eighties, agreed.
Six months later, the couple saw the mask in the catalog of an auction in Montpellier. According to the auction house, it was an extremely rare Ngi mask, made in the nineteenth century by the Fang people in Gabon.
According to an art expert, only ten such masks were made. He told French media that the mask was “rarer than a painting by Leonardo da Vinci”. The auction house estimated the value of the mask at at least 300,000 euros.
An anonymous collector subsequently bid 4.2 million euros at the auction. The couple then started a lawsuit against the trader to stop the sale. The trader claimed in court on Tuesday that he had no idea how much the mask was really worth.
It is not known when the judge will make a ruling. The Gabon government has asked to postpone the ruling until it is clear whether the mask was stolen. In the latter case, the sale will not go ahead anyway and France should return it to Gabon, that country believes.
Image: Ge
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2023-10-31 21:30:53
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