France
The couple sold the mask to a dealer in 2021 for 150 euros, before selling it to an unknown buyer for 4.2 million euros
Employees and agencies
Tuesday, December 19, 2023, 5:07 p.m. GMT
A French couple who sold an “extremely rare” African mask for 150 euros and then discovered it was worth millions have had their court dismissal of a bid to annul the sale of the artifact.
The couple, who are in their 80s, sold the wooden mask to a second-hand goods dealer in September 2021 as part of the sale of a number of antiques, including African artifacts, that they had stored in their second home in the south of France.
The objects belonged to an ancestor who was a governor in Africa during the colonial era and they were believed to be of little value.
The couple, who live in Eure-et-Loir, southwest of Paris, sold the mask for 150 euros, but in March 2022 it was sold at an auction in the southern city of Montpellier for 4.2 million euros to an unknown buyer.
The auctioneers described it as “an extremely rare 19th-century mask, the property of a secret society of the Fang people of Gabon,” an ethnic Bantu group of which only about 10 such items still exist. An official at the auction house told French television: “This type of mask is even rarer than a painting by Leonardo da Vinci.”
A French couple is suing dealers for their share of the 4.2 million euro sale price of an African mask
The couple immediately filed for an injunction to cancel the original sale, citing an “authentication error.” They also claimed that the buyer of the mask was aware of its actual value at the time of purchase.
But the court rejected the request on the grounds that the couple had failed to determine a value for the mask before selling it.
Their claim was characterized by “inexcusable negligence and recklessness,” the court said, ruling that they were not owed any money.
It was also ruled that the antiques dealer, who was not himself an expert in African art, had not defrauded them.
The dealer actually offered to pay them 300,000 euros, the starting price of the auction, but the couple's children refused, preferring to take the matter to court.
The couple's lawyer, Frédéric Mansat Jaffré, said after the verdict that his clients were “stunned” by the decision and were considering an appeal.
The court also rejected a separate request from the Gabonese government to cancel the sale and return the mask.
Members of the Gabonese community in southern France attended the auction in protest, saying the mask should never have been put up for sale in the first place and must be returned to the central African country.
Earlier this year, Solange Bizeau of the Collectif Gabon Occitanie, who protested against the auction along with other members of the Gabonese community, told the Guardian: “Today this court case is about the governor's grandchildren against a second-hand goods dealer.” But neither is legitimate in the sense of this mask. What we want is the return of this mask to Gabon.
“This mask has a soul, it was used to bring justice to our villages. The discussion in court was about morality, but what about the morality of expropriating works of art and our dignity? Where is the morale?”
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