Return of 76 Hermès scarves stolen from the Museum of Fabric Printing in Mulhouse

The case began in 2018 with the filing of a complaint by the director of the Mise, shortly after an auction house reported having received, for sale, objects appearing to come from the museum’s collections.

The Museum of Printing on Fabrics (Mise) in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), with a collection of printed fabrics unique in the world, discovered in 2018 a vast looting of its collections. He will be returned next Monday, 76 Hermès scarves recovered by the judicial police.

“We relied on the work of piecing (inventory) which was carried out within the museum, which established that 219 Hermès squares, as well as approximately 3,000 books of works, listing the fabrics produced over the ages , were stolen”, in addition to Gallé vases, the head of the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), Colonel Hubert Percie-du-Sert, told AFP.

“The identification of the pieces and the monitoring of commercial exchanges between the suspected persons made it possible to find 76 Hermès scarves which are subject to restitution. Monday afternoon, he added. “This shows the importance of inventorying and securing these collections, since we are then able to trace these objects throughout their life, or in any case at each transaction where they are detectable,” added the officer.

Jean-François Keller indicted

The case began in 2018 with the filing of a complaint by the director of the Mise, shortly after an auction house reported having received, for sale, objects appearing to come from the museum’s collections.

A preliminary investigation and then a judicial investigation were opened. “Investigations are still ongoing”the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office told AFP.

The museum’s former conservation delegate, Jean-François Keller, was indicted. He admitted the theft of Gallé vases as well as those of around a hundred Hermès squares. The Mulhouse judicial police and the OCBC, jointly responsible for the case, established a link between Mr. Keller and “a company based in the United States which purchased certain stolen workss”, according to the OCBC.

“At the same time, on the national territory, investigations carried out within a Parisian auction house as well as with an expert also made it possible to find around forty stolen industrial works”, specifies the OCBC. A first restitution of stolen works took place in 2022.

In 2019, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs issued formal notice to the museum of “take the necessary measures to remedy the dangers incurred by the collections”, an extremely rare procedure. It then decided to carry out inventory work on the most degraded collections, with the State then becoming the project owner.