Alexandre Pradère, head of the furniture department at Sotheby's and cofounder of the auction house's Paris branch with Marc Blondeau in 1976, has resigned from his post, it was learned on September 23rd 1999. Pradère has decided to join the firm of Marc Blondeau specialising in the sale of contemporary and modern art to boost up its activities in the field of 18th Century furniture.
As Sotheby's expert he organised prestigious sales such as those of the Cartier, Gould, Schlumberger and the Count of Paris collections between 1979 and 1996.
With his departure Sotheby's are to suffer a great loss at the moment when the U.S owned auction house is about to organise sales in France.
Pradere, 48, said he felt he needed a change during a certain time and waited to announce his decision until last June when Sotheby's organised the sale of the Chateau de Groussay, near Paris, with the help of the Parisian auction group Poulain-Le Fur.