The Pontoise judicial court, chaired by Angélique Heidsieck, returned yesterday – in a crowded room – its judgment in the case of false seats XVIIIᵉ, which broke out in 2016 and whose trial was held between March 25 and April 4, 2025.
The prosecution reproached Bill Pallot, an XVIIIᵉ seats expert, and Bruno Desnoues, ornamentalist sculptor on wood, for making and putting on the market, between 2008 and 2015, a series of seven counterfeit seats sold as authentic, some of which at the Palace of Versailles or spent on public sale, for amounts ranging from € 200,000 to € 2 million. Bill Pallot had admitted to having ordered the parts; Desnoues had admitted their manufacture. Of the seven, they dispute two: a pair of bending and a pair of Jacob stamped armchairs and delivered by Chatard.
While Prosecutor Pascal Rayer had retained the offense of deception
against the antique dealer Laurent Kraemer and required 12 months suspended prison sentence, € 80,000 fine, the confiscation of seizures in cash and € 700,000 for the SA Kraemer & Cie; The court pronounced the relaxation of the merchant. During the hearing, his negligence had been criticized for him – contesting any complicity and claiming to have been deceived. The court dismissed deception and negligence.
Bill Pallot benefited from a partial relaxation for the pair of folding stamped foliot but was found guilty for the rest. The court pronounced against him a four -year prison sentence, including four firm months (already carried out in pre -trial detention), accompanied by a fine of € 200,000. The court ordered the release of the seizure of his apartment avenue Marceau, but however followed the request of the prohibition prosecutor’s office to exercise the function of expert for five years.
Bruno Desnoues was found guilty of three years’ imprisonment, including four firm months (already carried out in pre -trial detention). The € 205,000 found in a trunk of his workshop are confiscated.
Joaquim Dias da Costa, the logistics link in the network – and the one by whom traffic was discovered in 2014, via suspicious financial operations identified by Tracfin – was found guilty and is punished with two years’ imprisonment, including four firm months (already carried out in pre -trial detention), as well as a fine of € 60,000. The court ordered the release of the seizure of his home in Sarcelles.
Éric Le Gouz de Saint-Seine, continued to have contributed to the flow of furniture from a private collector, was found guilty and sentenced to eight months suspended and € 50,000 (including € 30,000 suspended). Concerning the civil parties, the court retained a sharing of responsibility up to 25 % for the Château de Versailles, considering that the public establishment“Had been equipped with particularly competent professionals and did not organize its acquisition process sufficiently in order to ensure the authenticity of acquired objects”
. For the seats which had not yet been reimbursed to him, the court jointly condemned Desnoues and Pallot to pay him € 150,000 (75 % of the prices of the Bergère de Sené).
Sotheby’s, also a civil party, which had sold at willingly at Versailles a Jacob chair proposed by Bill Pallot, must be reimbursed jointly up to € 380,000 by Pallot and Desnoues, recognized entirely responsible for the damage suffered. They will also have to reimburse the Guerrand-Hermès family in solidarity with € 530,000, concerning another Jacob chair sold through Éric Le Gouz de Saint-Seine.
ERRATUM – Thursday June 12, 2025
Contrary to what we had initially written, the prosecutor Pascal Rayer did not retain the offense of money laundering.
