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An 18th Century French commode of royal provenance with a Versailles palace inventory number which was unnoticed in past years will be sold by Christie's in New York on November 24th 1998.
The commode was exhibited in Christie's premices in Paris on Monday september 21st and made most antique dealers there salivate with envy. The fact is that this black lacquered piece of furniture with a Japanese decor produced by the famous maker BVRB in 1745 had been on the French market for quite a long time without anybody noticing the 1343 number inscribed in india ink on its back.
Sold in 1745 to furbish the room of King Louis 15th's daughter at Versailles it had been acquired for 28 000 gold francs in May 1894 at Drouot. It was sold several years later to Paris antique dealer Jacques Perrin for 1,03 million francs (about US $ 180,000).
The latter never discovered the magic Versailles inventory mark and tried during eight long years to find a buyer for the commode which was then sold at Drouot in a sale conducted by Jacques Tajan during the 1970's. Once again, the expert for this sale, Jean-Pierre Dillée, did not see that marking.
This rare commode, estimated now between $ 6 and 9 million, was finally bought by U.S dealer Martin Zimet who then tried unsuccessfully to
sell it back to the Getty Museum .
The question now baffling all observers here is how the commode , which might fetch a world record price in New York, managed to cross the
Atlantic without being inspected by French museum officials who are normally called up by customs authorities to deliver export licences for all objects of art worth over US $ 50,000.
Apparently, no official saw the commode when it transited through French customs. As a result of this mishap France lost a rare treasure as the Versailles museum, which is much eager to have the commode back in its original place, has not the means to acquire it. Adrian Darmon PS: you'll probably find a picture of that commode in the Christie's catalogue for this New York sale.
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