Battle over Rare Antique

Legal row over 2,800,000% mark-up for African mask

A second-hand dealer in France has appeared in court accused of deceiving a couple by paying €150 (£130) for an African mask which he resold for €4.2m.

The pensioner couple found the mask from Gabon at the home of an ancestor who had been a colonial governor.

They sold it to the dealer in 2021, only to find out its true value following an auction six months later.

As the case opened on Tuesday, Gabon's government asked for proceedings to be halted and the mask returned.

The saga began when the couple - who are in their 80s and live in central France - asked the dealer to clear their holiday home near the southern town of Alès. The house had belonged to René-Victor Fournier, a colonial administrator in the early 20th Century.

The wooden mask was found in a cupboard. The dealer argues that he had no idea how valuable it was when he bought it.

In March 2022, reading about the auction in the city of Montpelier, the couple discovered that it was a rare 19th-Century "Ngi" mask made by the Fang people of Gabon.

The auction catalogue said it had been collected around 1917 by Fournier "in unknown circumstances".

One expert said at the time that only about 10 such items had ever been made by Fang masters. "This mask is rarer than a Leonardo da Vinci painting," he told French media.

The mask - which the auctioneers had initially valued at €300,000 - was bought for €4.2m by an unnamed bidder.

The couple then launched a civil case to annul the sale.

The Gabonese government has argued that the mask was stolen in the first place and should be returned home. It has asked for the court to delay its ruling pending a decision on its own complaint.

In 2020, the French parliament voted to return to Senegal and Benin prized artefacts that were looted during colonial times.

There are some 90,000 African artefacts in France, most from sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: BBC News 



 

 


Antiques Roadshow is a long-running TV programme in which members of the public find out more about their antiques from experts.The conversation always end with a valuation of the item. Click on the link to watch some clips from the show.


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Comments

Sir Joseph said…
Hi Graham,

If you subtract €150 from €4.2m. the result is a little sales commission. I don´t know why the pensioner couple complained. It´s only over 2,800.000% the percentage of profit. It´s necessary to recognize that this dealer is smart or, perhaps, we must call him too clever by half. LOL

It´s not good that René-Victor Fournier, a colonial administrator, took out the mask from Gabon, neither it´s good that the pensioner couple sold it to the dealer, nor the dealer sold it at an auction. All these people were rogue.

But the saga finished when Gabon´s government said that this mask was their. Then, it tried to halt the procedure to the mask returned to Gabon and the French parliament voted to return it to Gabon. And that´s the end of the story.

Notwithstanding, who is going to pay €4.2m. which anyone paid before in the auction?

See you.
Graham said…
Good evening José,

I hope you watched some of the Antique Roadshow clips on You Tube. Anything you find highlighted in red is linked. A.R. has been on TV screens for over 40 years. You might like it. People take all kinds of things to an expert to learn more about them and to see how much they are worth.

I see that you didn't understand this story. The court has not reached a decision yet. The Gabon government asked for their case to be concluded first. The French parliament has voted to return items to Senegal and Benin but as far as I understand, not to Gabon.


If you subtract €150 from €4.2m the result is a little sales commission. I don´t know why the pensioner couple complained. It´s only over 2,800.000% of profit. It´s necessary to recognize that this dealer is smart or, perhaps, we must call him too clever by half. LOL (too clever by half? I wonder where you got that expression from)

It's not good that René-Victor Fournier, a colonial administrator, took the mask out of Gabon. Neither is it good that the pensioner couple sold it to the dealer, nor that the dealer sold it at an auction. All these people were rogues.

But the saga finished when Gabon´s government said that this mask was theirs. Then, it tried to halt the procedure so that the mask may be returned to Gabon and the French parliament voted to return it to Gabon. And that´s the end of the story.

Notwithstanding, who is going to pay the €4.2 which someone paid before in the auction?