Dealers accused of tricks that turn ordinary desks
into £1m antiques
Buyers are being warned about the over-restoring or
upgrading of furniture to make it appear more valuable
Dalya
Alberge
Sun 16 Apr
2023 10.00 BST
Dealers are
over-restoring and upgrading furniture with modern additions disguised to make
them look older and more valuable, a leading expert has warned.
Yannick
Chastang, former furniture conservator of the Wallace Collection, which boasts
one of the world’s finest furniture holdings, can no longer turn a blind eye to
what some dealers and restorers are doing.
He told the
Observer: “I’m being quite generous in saying ‘over-restored’. I would say
‘manufactured’, if I was a bit more blunt.”
He recalled
a 19th-century desk that was auctioned for around £2,500, only to surface six
months later as an 18th-century desk with a price tag exceeding a million
pounds.
He was
shocked to discover that a leading antiques dealer had turned it into an object
supposedly created by one of France’s most-prized cabinetmakers, André-Charles
Boulle, revered by Louis XIV of France as “the most skilled craftsman in his
profession”: “I’ve got the photos before and after.
“Very
cleverly, they had added bronze and marquetry to make it look more convincing
and more desirable. The original did not have those details. That is,
unfortunately, a common practice.
“The
catalogue entry was how the bronze compared well with objects in the Hermitage
in Saint Petersburg, and the Wallace Collection. Of course it compared well,
because the restorer copied them.”
He has also
seen a pair of 18th-century bronze wall-lights divided into four, so that each
includes an original element. “That’s a common practice for dealers. Buy
18th-century, but then make copies, mixing original and copies. Or buy
19th-century objects and remodify them to make them older.”
Chastang
was furniture conservator at the Wallace Collection between 1997 and 2003,
before opening a studio specialising in the conservation of fine furniture and
decorative arts. He has been called as an external adviser to the Louvre in
Paris, and conserved furniture for important collections, including Waddesdon
Manor in Buckinghamshire, among others.
Chastang’s
criticisms relate to museum-quality furniture, most of which is sold through
private dealers, “who are not very public about their income”, and auction
houses, where the record price is still held by the spectacular 18th-century
Badminton Cabinet, which sold in 2004 for £19m to the Liechtenstein museum in
Vienna.
Aware that
he is making himself unpopular by speaking out, he said: “I’m raising alarm
bells for what is on the market. The sad thing is that a lot of objects in the
trade may end up in a museum, but they’re going to be over-restored.”
It is all
the more depressing that some of the more unfortunate restorations cannot be
reversed, he said, recalling a “stunning” 19th-century desk in a country house
that was subsequently sold to a dealer.
“That
object has been totally ruined by restoration. It’s not reversible and, in 10
to 20 years’ time, it will fall to bits because the chemicals they used makes
it impossible to restore again. They over-cleaned it, making it totally new.
The varnish and the marquetry were removed and part replaced. I was so appalled
by it.
“Quite
frankly, if you want something bright and shiny, buy something new.”
Martin
Levy, a leading furniture expert in London, echoed Chastang’s criticisms:
“Knowingly representing a work of art as something you know to be false is
dishonest and brings the market into disrepute.
“The
approach to treating genuine old works of art should be that of conservation,
nothing more,” he said.
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