Chairs in high places - the trial

The high-profile case involving Bill Pallot's fraudulent sale of fake 18th-century chairs has finally come to trial.  He has apparently confessed all - wonder what his sentence will be?

A famous French antiques expert, Bill Pallot, has confessed to carrying out a €4.5 million fraud that deceived the most illustrious institutions, including the Palace of Versailles, into purchasing counterfeit 18th-century royal chairs.

The revelations came out during a trial at Pontoise criminal court, just outside Paris, where Pallot and five others, including prominent cabinetmaker Bruno Desnoues, face charges.

The court heard that the Palace of Versailles paid €840,000 for two chairs believed to have belonged to the Comtesse du Barry, mistress of Louis XV. In reality, they were crafted in a Paris workshop within the last two decades. Pallot, 61, author of the acclaimed The Art of the Chair in the 18th Century in France, admitted to masterminding the scam alongside Desnoues. The duo, it is said, began the swindle ‘for fun’ to test their abilities in fooling experts, using authentic antique chair frames bought cheaply at auctions. These were then embellished with gold leaf and upholstery by unsuspecting Parisian craftsmen before Pallot added fake stamps to lend credibility.
The €4.5 million French chair fraud « Euro Weekly News 

The ‘Marie Antoinette’ chairs that fooled France’s finest auctioneers in €4.5m scam [Daily Telegraph, 25.03.2025]

See also: Rodama News: Fake chairs in high places (revisited) 26.11.2023

Off with his head?  Or maybe, make him sit on Ikea chairs for the rest of his life?