A leading French art expert is to face trial on charges of forgery for building furniture that he falsely claimed to be from the 18th century and that was sold at high prices to buyers who included the Palace of Versailles.
Bill Pallot, an expert on 18th-century French furniture, is charged with implementing the scam between 2008 and 2015, in one of the biggest forgery scandals to rock the art world in recent years.
Pallot, 59, with his distinctive long hair and three-piece suits, is a familiar figure in France due to his regular publications and media appearances.
He was nicknamed “Père la chaise” – a play on Paris’s Père-Lachaise cemetery and the phrase “father of the chair”.
He is accused along with his fellow defendant Bruno Desnoues, a prominent woodcarver, of producing and selling chairs from 2007 to 2008 that were claimed to be historic pieces that had adorned the rooms of the likes of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, and Marie Antoinette.
A former director of the Louvre museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, was charged last year with conspiring to hide the origin of archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the Arab spring.
The original article contains 297 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A leading French art expert is to face trial on charges of forgery for building furniture that he falsely claimed to be from the 18th century and that was sold at high prices to buyers who included the Palace of Versailles.
Bill Pallot, an expert on 18th-century French furniture, is charged with implementing the scam between 2008 and 2015, in one of the biggest forgery scandals to rock the art world in recent years.
Pallot, 59, with his distinctive long hair and three-piece suits, is a familiar figure in France due to his regular publications and media appearances.
He was nicknamed “Père la chaise” – a play on Paris’s Père-Lachaise cemetery and the phrase “father of the chair”.
He is accused along with his fellow defendant Bruno Desnoues, a prominent woodcarver, of producing and selling chairs from 2007 to 2008 that were claimed to be historic pieces that had adorned the rooms of the likes of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, and Marie Antoinette.
A former director of the Louvre museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, was charged last year with conspiring to hide the origin of archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the Arab spring.
The original article contains 297 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!