The verdict of the Drouot porters stealing from the dead
ARTinvestment.RU   12 сентября 2016

35 "red collar" and 3 former auctioneer Drouot received prison terms of up to 3 years and monetary fines of up to 60 thousand euros for the fact that appropriated unaccounted for during disassembly of the houses of the dead

In March this year, the auction world shook the scandal, is associated with a long-term, systematic theft of art and Antiques the members of a private professional community movers called "saleucami" (the Savoyards) by geographic origin or "red collar" (cols rouges) by the color of their uniform. "Savoury" wait, auction house Drouot for more than 180 years – have you analyzed the property in the houses of dead people and prepared items to sell at auction. And while constantly skimming product. Usually it was some-то trinkets unaccounted for in inventory records. If the relatives of the deceased suddenly noticed the shortage, the subject immediately accidentally "was", apologies were offered, it was jammed. But not this time. The Braves wanted more – the paintings of Courbet, Marc Chagall, Picasso sketches, and so on. Increased the scale of theft has increased the risk of being caught. So what happened in the end. In 2009, one of the "red collar" caught selling the work of Courbet, the missing six years earlier. He wanted earn up to 100 thousand euros. This and other cases have forced the French police to conduct a search on the stock "red collar" near Paris. In the end, found out it was 250 tons unaccounted for Antiques.

the trial Began. It was revealed intriguing details. For example, to get into the private club of the movers@-"savicev" was only possible by buying up seats at the members coming out of it. The newcomers had to be test theft – a kind of rite of initiation.

the court ruled on the case. Of the 49 original detainees guilty in the end admitted 38 (35 movers and 3 former auctioneers). The movers were sentenced to prison terms of up to 3 years (18 months suspended) and fines of up to 60 thousand euros. The auctioneers gave suspended sentences to 18 months and fines for 25 thousand euros. The Union of "red collar" (the official name of "L'union des commissionnaires de l'hôtel des ventes") in the judgment of the court was dismissed and fined another 220 thousand euros. At the same auction house Drouot in 2010, when they began to deal with the "collar", refused their services and eventually acted as one of the plaintiffs.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: artnet.com, artdaily.com, theguardian.com, artinvestment.ru