A French court ordered the high-profile Galerie Kraemer in Paris to return €2.8 million (around $3.25 million) to collector Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani over questions about a Chinese vase. The decision follows eight years of legal wrangling over the date attributed to the piece.
As reported by the Art Newspaper, the Paris court of appeal sided with the collector, a cousin of the Emir of Qatar, “because of ‘serious doubts’ about the 18th-century dating of the gilded bronze mounts of the porcelain vase.”
The vase sold for €815 ($945) in Brazil 20 years ago, according to investigators cited by TAN, and then passed through a Paris flea market and three antique dealers before being purchased by Laurent Kraemer for €180,000 ($208,750).
But after Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani bought the vase in 2012, he had it examined in the wake of questions raised after “Galerie Kraemer was embroiled in several fake furniture cases (including one involving counterfeit royal chairs sold to the same collector, for which the gallery was acquitted of deception by gross negligence; it denies wrongdoing in the others).”
Expert Sébastien Evain deemed the vase’s dating “highly improbable,” and two others said it “could not have been mounted in the 18th century.”
“But an expert commissioned by the gallery, Gilles Perrault, who did not see the object in person, countered these claims,” according to TAN. “After analyzing Evain’s report and viewing 76 photographs of the bronze mounts, he concluded it was ‘certainly an 18th-century manufacture.’ His opinion was supported by another expert, Guy Kalfon, who also only saw photographs.”
A court rejected Sheikh Hamad’s claim in 2021, but more conflicting opinions arose. Then the most recent ruling was issued, as TAN reports: “The court of appeal ruled that ‘meticulous examinations by competent specialists,’ who examined the work by sight, raised ‘serious doubts.’ This was sufficient for the court to annul the sale, even though the creation date could not be ascertained.”
The lawyer for Galerie Kraemer, which plans to appeal the ruling, expressed disappointment with the decision and said: “All dealers should be concerned that it only takes a couple of experts to raise doubts about dates to cancel the sale of such a marvelous object.”
