"Le Père la chaise" verdict ... Guilty!

No real surprises there!  But one suspects he has got away quite lightly....

  "Two French antiques experts have been convicted of forging historic chairs that they claimed had once belonged to French royals such as Marie Antoinette.

Georges "Bill" Pallot and Bruno Desnoues were given four months behind bars as well as longer suspended sentences for selling a number of fake 18th Century chairs to collectors including the Palace of Versailles and a member of the Qatari royal family.

As both have already served four months in pre-trial detention, they will not return to prison.

Another defendant, Laurent Kraemer, who - along with his gallery - was accused of failing to adequately check the chairs' authenticity before selling them on, were acquitted of deception by gross negligence.

Wednesday's judgement was the culmination of a nine-year investigation that rocked the French antiques world.

At a court in Pontoise, north of Paris, the judge also handed out hefty fines to Pallot and Desnoues of €200,000 (£169,500) and €100,000 respectively.

Reacting to his sentence, Pallot said it was "a little harsh financially", but he was glad that his Paris apartment would not be seized, according to AFP news agency.

During the trial, the prosecution had argued that Laurent Kraemer and his gallery in Paris were at fault for failing to sufficiently check the authenticity of the items they bought, before selling them on to buyers such as Qatari prince Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, who bought two chairs said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette for €2m."  BBC News.