Almost everyone has dreamed of it: finding an unsuspected treasure at the bottom of their cellar. This is what happened to a retired couple. The treasure in question is a fang mask from Gabon. Sold for 150 euros to a second-hand dealer, it was actually worth more than 4 million.
The story started well, but it ended on Tuesday, October 31, in front of the Alès court. Two years ago, a couple in their eighties emptied their holiday home located in Gard to put it up for sale. At the bottom of a dusty storage room, the retirees then find an old African mask inherited from an ancestor, a governor in Gabon.
>> Art: a fang mask, bought for 150 euros by a second-hand dealer, sold for several million euros at auction
They decide to get rid of it and call on a second-hand dealer. The sale price is 150 euros. Except that a few months later, they discovered in the newspaper that this mask – in fact extremely rare – had been sold at auction for 4.2 million euros. “My clients have fallen out of their chairs“, tells franceinfo the couple’s lawyer, Me Frédéric Mansat-Jaffré. “This mask was in a closet, closed, it was not in the main room. My customers didn’t pay any more attention to it than that”continues the lawyer.
“Obviously, if we had known that this mask had such rare and important qualities, the sale would never have taken place under these conditions. They were robbed, ripped off.”
Me Frédéric Mansat-Jaffréat franceinfo
Did the second-hand dealer know the real value of the mask from the start? This will be the whole subject of the hearing which is being held this morning, since after having tried to negotiate, in vain, financial compensation with the second-hand dealer, the couple decided to file a complaint against him. Failing to be able to recover the mask, now in the hands of a rich foreign collector, the retirees hope to collect millions from the sale.
“An insult to our people”
“A shameful circus” considers for its part the Gabon Occitanie collective. “It is an insult to our people. Today, this mask is exhibited for money while for us, it is a soul that should not be exposed and sold like cattle or like a toy “explains its president Solange Boizeau.
A mask used when “secret rites” of the Ngil community for “to serve justice”she explains. “When in our villages, there were crimes or problems that people could not resolve, we called on the village chief Ngil and this mask came to restore justice. And each time, this mask came out of corners secrets of the village to question the author of the crime, it was the mask to reestablish the truth”, specifies Solange Boizeau, who is demanding its return to Gabon: “This mask was not for sale, it was stolen during the colonization era.”
“Hundreds of ritual masks are sold every day”
But for the lawyer of the collector, now owner of the mask, talking about theft is totally abusive. “The association does not advance the slightest element of any theft”assures Me Yves-Bernard Debie. “I noticeadds the lawyer, that these subjects only ever come up when these masks have a significant price. Every day, hundreds of ritual masks are sold and there is never the slightest dispute or the slightest purchase by these associations.” As for the legitimacy for Gabon to claim this work, it is not justified, believes the lawyer.
“It would then be necessary for the works of the Italian Renaissance to be only in Italy, and perhaps even better in Florence which was its cradle? Art belongs to the world and not only to the country which saw the birth of this work.”
Me Yves-Bernard Debieat franceinfo
This question could in turn be the subject of legal proceedings since the Gabon Occitanie association and the State of Gabon say they have taken legal action. Contacted by franceinfo, the Alès vice-prosecutor said she had not received any complaints to date. This “mask of justice” which would have inspired Picasso and Modigliani therefore remains for the moment in the hands of its latest buyer. To date, only around ten similar masks have been identified in the world.