When an elderly couple held a garage sale after selling their second home in the south of France, little did they know they would find themselves embroiled in a legal battle with millions of euros at stake.
The 88-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife, identified by their initials in court documents but confirmed to CNN as Mr. and Mrs. Fournier by their lawyer, offered for sale an ancient African mask, which had been inherited from Mr. Fournier’s grandfather.
The grandfather, René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier, served as colonial governor in Central Africa during the early 20th century, when significant parts of the continent were under French colonial rule.
The Fourniers sold their mask in September 2021 to a second-hand dealer for 150 euros (approximately R$790), court documents show. According to the lawyer, Frédéric Mansat Jaffré, the two were unaware of the market value of the mask and believed that the reseller was offering a fair price.
A few months later, their lawyer said he learned from a newspaper article that their old mask was being auctioned and that it was worth substantially more than the amount paid by the dealer.
Two days later, it was sold for 4.2 million euros [aproximadamente R$ 22,8 milhões]showed a sales receipt shared with the CNN .
The reseller’s defense, according to the documents, states that he was unaware of the value of the mask when he bought it from the couple and only discovered it when he went to the auction house to evaluate it.
Court documents show that his lawyers argued that “the sellers have no reason to claim error. They themselves put the item on sale for 150 euros. They made an inaccurate economic assessment of the value presented by the mask.”
The Fourniers initiated civil proceedings against the dealer, which they lost in the fall of 2022 and were ordered to pay legal costs.
They are now appealing the previous court decision, claiming that the dealer failed “in its obligation to provide pre-contractual information” and committed “a breach of consent”.
The couple seeks to cancel the sale of the mask and wants the auction proceeds to be passed on to them.
A CNN contacted the dealer’s lawyer, but has not received a response so far.
Extremely rare artifact
When the appeal was initiated at the Alès Court, in the south of France, on Tuesday (31), the Gabon government intervened and formally requested the suspension of the process.
Gabon has opened a different court case for handling stolen goods, accusing Mr Fournier’s ancestor of having stolen the Ngil mask and therefore never having been its rightful owner, he told CNN Olivia Betoe Bi Evie, one of the lawyers representing Gabon.
If the court accepts the petition to suspend the current legal proceedings over the sale of the Ngil mask, the country will be able to pursue its case for the handling of stolen goods and fight for the mask to be returned to its country of origin. The court is expected to release its decision on December 19.
The mask is an extremely rare artifact and of great spiritual value to the Gabonese people, Betoe Bi Evie told CNN .
Dating back to the 19th century, it belonged to the powerful Ngil society, a secret group tasked with administering justice in the Fang communities of Gabon, according to Betoe Bi Evie.
“For Westerners, the mask is an object of art,” said Betoe Bi Evie, “but for Africans, for Gabonese people, it is a ritual object used to ensure peace in society. This is very important”.
According to a Sotheby’s listing for a similar Ngil mask, these artifacts “are among the rarest and most celebrated of all African works of art,” which makes them “highly sought after as indispensable cornerstones of the finest collections.” of African art”.
The mask’s auction catalog said it had been “collected around 1917, under unknown circumstances, by French colonial governor René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier (1873-1931), probably during a trip to Gabon,” according to the mask’s affiliate. CNN BFMTV.
Tense legal battle
The couple’s lawyer argued in court that the dealer deliberately withheld information about the mask’s origins from them and planned to split the money with the gardener who worked for the couple and who had provided the dealer with information about the Fourniers’ ties to the former governor. colonial.
It was with this information that the dealer was able to deduce the origin of the mask, lawyer Mansat Jaffré told CNN .
The dealer and the gardener allegedly visited the auction house together, presenting themselves as co-owners of the mask, the elderly claim in court documents.
The couple also claims that the dealer did not inform them about his relationship with the gardener, nor that he intended to auction off the mask, according to the lawyer.
“We think he (the dealer) already had an idea and knew that the mask was rare,” Mansat Jaffré told CNN . “My clients are not art collectors, they are amateurs, they didn’t know that,” she added.
After the Fourniers discovered the mask was being auctioned, they contacted the dealer, who offered 300,000 euros in compensation, the equivalent of the auction house’s estimate of the mask’s value, Mansat Jaffré said.
The couple’s children advised their parents to refuse the amount and take legal action.
At the moment, 3.2 million euros, the amount the reseller earned from selling the mask after tax deductions and commission fees, has been frozen in his bank account by the courts, said Mansat Jaffré.
The trial attracted the attention of the large French African diaspora, and among those present in court were several Gabonese protesters who demanded that the mask be returned to their country.
Some were also present at the auction house when the mask was sold in March 2022, according to Solange Bizeau, president of Collectif Gabon Occitanie, the organization behind the protests.
She told CNN who was “shocked” to see how little respect for her culture was shown in court.
“The two lawyers told the court that we, the Gabonese people and the Gabonese State, have no legitimate right to [a máscara]”, said Bizou. “I was shocked to see that they [os participantes do leilão] They weren’t interested in the mask, they didn’t care what it meant for us, all they wanted was money.”
Today, only a dozen Ngil masks remain in the world, according to court documents. Many, according to Betoe Bi Evie, are in the hands of private collectors.
So far, the identity of the mask’s buyer remains unknown to everyone except the dealer and the auction house, none of whom have disclosed it, Mansat Jaffré told CNN .
Refunds requested
French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly called for the restitution of colonial artifacts from French collections to their original owners.
After his election in 2017, he expressed his desire that “the conditions are met within five years for temporary or permanent restitutions of African heritage to Africa.”
According to a report presented to Macron in 2018, there are at least 80,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa held in French public collections. So far, only a few have been returned to their countries of origin.
Some artifacts were returned for an indefinite period, such as the 26 looted royal objects that make up the Behanzin Treasury, returned to Benin in 2020.
Others were returned to their birthplaces on long-term loans, such as the sword and scabbard of West African leader Omar Tall, currently on display at Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilizations.
In addition to Benin and Senegal, five other African countries – Chad, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Mali – made official requests for refunds from the French government.
However, as the Ngil mask at the center of the ongoing trial has not been kept in a public collection, Gabon cannot demand its return to France.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
