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How a Sneaky Furniture Expert Ripped Off the Rich and Tricked Versailles
- basicplus2 8y agohe recognized in them the handiwork of Pallot’s gilder and carver. “I often use the same people on restorations, and I’m intimate with their strengths and weaknesses,” Hooreman says. He knew that one of them, for example, was fond of painting a coat of melted-down licorice on the surface of reproductions, to make new wood look old and dirty. In 2012, Hooreman saw a pair of ployants—folding benches—that were for sale in the Aaron gallery showroom and were billed as the onetime property of Princess Louise Élisabeth, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV, and acted on a hunch. “I licked the chair and voilà,” he says. “I could taste the fraud.”
- imron 8y ago> “I licked the chair and voilà,” he says. “I could taste the fraud.” That's dedication. I don't even want to imagine the years of dirt and cruft he'd be licking if the chair was authentic.
- setr 8y agoI would imagine it was still cleaned up before putting up for sale, even if there weren't any repairs done
- imron 8y agoSure but the reason the licorice was used was to simulate accumulated dirt and grime, so he's either licking licorice or he's licking centuries of dirt and grime. Lucky for him it was licorice!
- legohead 8y agoI don't understand. Are you simply quoting the article?
- empath75 8y agohttps://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=gIVgUjj6RxU https://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=gIVgUjj6RxU Orson Welles’ F is for Fake is essential viewing if you’re interested in forgery.
- ChefboyOG 8y agoI was literally just about to share this as well. Such an underrated movie. Although, Elmyr has a little more of a superhero-esque aura around his forgeries than this guy.
- Applejinx 8y agoI find I just can't have any sympathy for Versailles. La Marseillaise is 'the national identity' more than Versailles.
- airstrike 8y agoWhy can’t you like both? Surely you can appreciate that the French monarchy had a non-zero impact in the French culture and identity that remains to this day
- sp332 8y agoYes, in that they cut/chiseled the heads off all representations of monarchy in Versailles. It seems mainly to serve as a negative example.
- realusername 8y agoAnd so what? The building is a wonderful piece of history worth to preserve.
- BrandoElFollito 8y agoSure, let's cut some throats and see some blood flowing. /s I am a French republican at heart, proud of my country, and see our history as a complicated layer of events which all brought something in. As much Versailles as the Revolution, as the years of Christianity and the sweet laicity we have today.
- gingerlime 8y agoI just watched Sour Grapes[0] on Netflix - an incredible story about wine forgery that has lots of parallels to this story. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5728684/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5728684/
- 98codes 8y agoA similar documentary[0] around the art world blew my mind -- not only was one man fooling people into thinking his paintings were real, he was the one making them. [0] http://artandcraftfilm.com/ http://artandcraftfilm.com/
- gingerlime 8y agowould love to watch it, but looks like it's only available in the US for some reason :/
- at-fates-hands 8y agoAfter reading some books on art forgeries and the underground art market, someone recommended I check out the wine industry and told me it was just as bad if not worse. I'd point people to another great Vanity Fair article about wine fraud: A Vintage Crime https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/wine-fraud-rudy-kurniawan-vintage-burgundies https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/wine-fraud-rudy-k...
- gingerlime 8y agoThis looks like the same guy / story :)
- tyu100 8y agoA great novel with furniture fraud at its core is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
- astrodust 8y agoAny documentary that has one of the Koch brothers losing millions of dollars to fraud made possible by his greed gets a thumbs up from me.
- jaggederest 8y agoI think it's very interesting that they don't use radiometric dating, like carbon dating, to establish the age of the parts of the chair on an absolute basis. I suppose the forgeries could be constructed using extremely old wood, but even then, the glue or other parts would have to be relatively modern, and would provide a contrasting age.
- evasote 8y agoCarbon Dating is typically for things at least 500 years old. While that might be useful for furniture, it wouldn't apply here. Glue is useful - an older chair would have used hide glue, made from real animals. If a modern, non-hide glue was used that's an immediate giveaway. However, modern furniture builders still use it quite a lot in high end work today
- jaggederest 8y agoThere's other types of radiometric dating, like looking at isotope ratios to see whether it was made before or after atmospheric nuclear testing, if there are parts that would be different (typically metal pieces)