Bruno Desnoues, a well-known furniture restorer linked to the Château de Versailles, was recently found guilty of running a fraud with faux 18th-century chairs. He was aided by Bill Pallot, a nationally recognized expert in royal French furniture who defended this deception. The fraud went on from 2008 to 2015. It included the sale of fake but masterfully produced chairs that fooled collectors and museums alike, resulting in €4.5 million in proven damages.
The surprise scandal sparked in 2014. Questions flooded in on the provenance of numerous one-of-a-kind, multimillion-dollar chairs that the likes of the Qatari emir and other rich collectors had acquired. The Château de Versailles spent more than €1.5 million on six fake royal seats. They thought these pieces were authentic artifacts.
Bruno Desnoues had previously been commissioned for a restoration project involving Louis XVI’s bed at the famed Château de Versailles. His reputation as one of the finest restorers gave authenticity to the fake masterpieces that he and Pallot made. The adroit young men re-used the beautiful carved wooden frames of genuine 18th century chairs. This brilliant move meant they could create fakes that appeared genuine to all but the most discerning of eyes.
Bill Pallot, known by the nickname Père La Chaise, is recognized as the world’s foremost authority on 18th-century royal French furniture. He wrote the definitive book on the seating from that period and was revered throughout the art community. His engagement in this large, national forgery scheme ultimately ruined his public legacy and resulted in federal felony charges.
The criminal court proceedings eventually came to a close with Pallot being handed down a three year suspended prison sentence. He’d already spent four months on remand. Desnoues was given a four-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay a €200,000 fine.
During their testimonies, both men admitted to their part in the scheme, looking back with newfound perspective on what drove them. Pallot stated, “It’s said there is no such thing as the perfect crime. There’s no such thing as a perfect fake either. We could have done better. We’re not good forgers. We didn’t make the wood retract.” This forthright admission brings home just how hard a task they’ve taken on, even as their forgeries experience an initial run of success.
Desnoues expressed a different perspective on his involvement, claiming, “I’m into work and sculpture. I’ve never been passionate about money.” His quote demonstrates that he deeply valued the craft of furniture restoration. He was not as worried about the bottom line and the profit making aspect.
First, the sheer scale of the scam was jaw-dropping. This further called into question the art market’s integrity, as well as its capacity to judge authenticity. Laurent Kraemer, one of the collectors deceived by the pair’s creations, noted that he was “100% convinced, without a doubt, that these were authentic chairs.” This close to the edge sentiment further highlights the shocking effect of the forgeries on deep-pocketed collectors of the time who trusted the authenticity experts.
Probes into the duo’s wrongdoing were still ongoing. It eventually dawned on them that they were motivated by pure curiosity, to see how far they could go and stretch the limits of what art forgery could be. Pallot remarked, “We said we’d do it as a game, to see if the art market noticed or not.” This comment is quite the slip, revealing their true motivation. It exposes the form’s vulnerabilities, both within the art world and outside of it.