Georges “Bill” Pallot, one of the most prominent 18th-century furniture experts in Paris, was convicted of forging and selling royal furniture that duped experts from the château de Versailles and wealthy collectors.
Pallot was sentenced on 11 June to four years in prison, including a 44-month suspended sentence, and a €200,000 fine. He has also been banned from working as an expert for five years.
The cabinet maker Bruno Desnoues, who was employed as a furniture restorer for Versailles and used his skills to create the forgeries, was sentenced to three years in prison, including a 32-month suspended sentence, and a €100,000 fine. Both men have to pay an indemnity of €1.6m to the victims.
And as both have already served four months in pre-trial detention, they will not return to prison.
The judgement came as no surprise as both men had confessed to their misdeeds when they were arrested in 2016.
The prestigious Kraemer Gallery and its director Laurent Kraemer—who were accused of deception by gross negligence for selling two fake Marie-Antoinette chairs to the Qatari Prince Hamad Al Thani for €2m—were acquitted. The prosecutor had sought the heaviest fine of €700,000 for the gallery, accusing Kraemer of “negligence” in carrying out due diligence.
But the court conceded that the dealer, who said he was convinced the items were genuine and had refunded the prince, was yet another victim of the forgers.
Kraemer, however, remains charged in another case for a series of allegedly fake Boulle pieces and other Louis XIV furniture.
Pallot, who also taught at the Sorbonne university and the École du Louvre, was considered the world’s leading authority on royal chairs. He also ran the furniture division at the Didier Aaron Gallery, which was not prosecuted.
According to the judgement, nine chairs and armchairs, purportedly commissioned by relatives of Louis XV and Louis XVI, were sold through Parisian galleries and Sotheby’s to the Château of Versailles and to private collectors including Prince Al Thani and an heir to the Hermès family.
The court underlined the flaws in the procedures of the National Museum of Versailles, which employs leading scholars of royal furniture.
Pallot appeared to take the verdict lightly. “I was the head and Desnoues
was the hands”, he told the judges.
