The curator of the Versailles palace celebrated on October 15th 1999 the return of the 18th Century royal commode by J.H Riesener bought on its behalf last July in the Rotheschild sale at Christie's for the record sum of US $ 11,6 million. This splendid piece of furniture was bought by the French State and the wife of François Pinault, the owner of Christie's, in order to offer it to the Versailles palace where it had been housed until the French Revolution of 1789.
The commode has now found its original place in the King's library while it was rumoured that the Pinault couple had bought a black lacquered Japanese style secrétaire attributed to Weisweiller, which had been delivered to the Versailles palace in 1784. This rare piece of furniture was bought by Mrs Johnson in July 1983 at Sotheby's in London for £ 900,000 (US $ 1,5 million), £ 50,000 more than what the Versailles Palace had been prepared to offer. It has since then been offered for sale by a Lichstein-based Trust and might well also return to Versailles soon.
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