Friday 29 September 2017

Remembering: The Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting November 3, 1985 – April 13, 1986 / The National Gallery of Art


 The Treasure Houses of Britain: 500 Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting
November 3, 1985 – April 13, 1986

East Building, Upper Level and Mezzanine (35,000 sq. ft.)
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 700 art objects from more than 200 country houses in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland illustrated 500 years of British collecting from the 15th century to the present. 17 period rooms were constructed to display the objects. This was the largest and most complicated exhibition undertaken to date by the National Gallery. Gervase Jackson-Stops, architectural advisor to the National Trust of Great Britain, chose paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Anthony van Dyck, Canaletto, and John Singer Sargent; sculpture by Praxiteles, Canova, and Henry Moore; furniture by Kent and Chippendale; Meissen, Sèvres, Chelsea, and Oriental porcelain; and drawings, tapestries, jewelry, armor, silver, and other decorative arts.

Organization: Jackson-Stops structured and selected the exhibition with Gaillard Ravenel and Mark Leithauser. Ravenel, Leithauser, and Jackson-Stops designed the exhibition to reflect each period of collecting, and Gordon Anson designed the lighting.

Sponsor: The exhibition, organized in conjunction with the British Council after 6 years of preparation, was made possible by a grant from Ford Motor Company, special funding from the 98th Congress, indemnities from Her Majesty's Treasury and the United States Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and by British Airways.

Attendance: 990,474

Catalog: The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, edited by Gervase Jackson-Stops. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Brochure: The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, by Gervase Jackson-Stops, edited by William J. Williams. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1985.




A GALA FOR 'TREASURE HOUSES OF BRITAIN'
By BARBARA GAMAREKIAN, Special to the New York Times
Published: October 31, 1985

Members of the British aristocracy are here by the score to celebrate the largest exhibition ever held by the National Gallery of Art: ''The Treasure Houses of Britain.''

An extravagant start for almost two weeks of festivities surrounding the show, which opens to the public Sunday, took place tonight in the new Georgian-style ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Given by the hotel's owner, John B. Coleman and his wife, Virginia, the black-tie dinner dance honored the owners of ''The Magnificent Seven,'' the most-visited stately homes in England.

The owners and their houses are the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough of Blenheim Palace; Lord Montagu of Beaulieu; the Marquess and Marchioness of Tavistock of Woburn Abbey; Simon and Annette Howard of Castle Howard; Lord and Lady Romsey of Broadlands; the Earl and Countess of Harewood of Harewood House, and Michael and Vibeke Herbert. Mr. Herbert is the chief executive of Madame Tussaud's Ltd., owner of Warwick Castle.

The occasion, said Mr. Coleman, was ''a thank you'' to the lenders for their support of the National Gallery exhibition. For the gala, Mrs. Coleman wore a strapless scarlet Scaasi ball gown, and she, Mr. Coleman and Lord Montagu received the guests, announced by one of England's renowned toastmasters, Ivor Spencer. The menu for dinner was all-American: pumpkin soup, roast loin of veal stuffed with oyster dressing and cranberry and apple brown betty.

Among the guests were an assortment of American ambassadors, Cabinet officers and members of Congress as well as Susan and David Brinkley, Carolyn and Michael K. Deaver, Buffy and William Cafritz, Kathleen and Henry Ford 2d, and Jo Anne and Donald E. Petersen. Mr. Petersen is chairman of the Ford Motor Company, corporate sponsor of the ''Treasure Houses'' show.

Other guests included Evangeline Bruce in black velvet; her houseguest, the Duchess of Devonshire, in gray-green watered silk, and Bonnie Swearingen in an emerald Ungaro dress, worn with an emerald choker and earrings.

''It's an incredible schedule,'' the Duchess said. ''They have us running and busing.''

The idea of maintaining and insuring the future of privately owned country houses by opening them to the public - ''the stately home business,'' as the Marquess of Tavistock phrased it - was originated by the 13th Duke of Bedford in 1955. ''It was my father who took up the idea of opening up these homes to paying visitors,'' Lord Tavistock said.

The appellation ''The Magnificent Seven'' was ''thought up'' by the seven families ''as a marketing device,'' said the Duke of Marlborough, whose ancestral home, Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, was visited by 380,000 people last year.

''We pool our ideas and our resources and use a joint leaflet,'' the Duke said. ''Every cent goes back into the business. It is a real challenge these days to keep these large homes going for the future. We consider ourselves to be custodians of the national heritage.''

But much of the talk was of the exhibition itself, which had been visited earlier in the day by a number of the lenders.

''I had expected a marvelous show, but it's beyond anything that I had anticipated,'' said Simon Howard, whose Castle Howard in Yorkshire starred in the televised dramatization of ''Brideshead Revisited.''

Lord Montagu, who called the exhibition ''a dream come true,'' said: ''I've been talking with Carter about this for more than seven years.'' He was referring to J. Carter Brown, director of the National Gallery.

Jerome Zipkin said, ''You need about a half-dozen trips to see it all.'' Mr. Zipkin, who was returning to New York on Thursday morning, added, ''I'm coming back for the big number,'' referring to the White House dinner on Nov. 9 for the Prince and Princess of Wales, patrons of the exhibition.

Lord Tavistock, who has lent several dozen objects to the show, including Antonio Canova's marble ''The Three Graces,'' said: ''It is an amazing experience to go around and see things that belong to you in the middle of a collection of works of art that is second to none in the world. We British have been magpies for centuries, and we are still at it - my wife and I just bought a painting in Tennessee, so we brought over 33 objects for the show, and we are going home with 34.''

Mr. Brown had suggested to a number of the British guests that tiaras might be appropriate for the American festivities. But Lady Tavistock arrived in Washington tiara-less.

''It is all because of my crazy idea,'' said her husband. ''I thought a case of tiaras would look unusual in the exhibition and suggested it to Carter, and he said, 'What a great idea -can I borrow a couple of yours?' So Henrietta's tiaras are locked up in a case at the National Gallery.''

No matter, said the Marchioness: ''Traveling with a tiara is such a performance. Your hair has to be woven into them, and I wouldn't think you would be able to find a hairdresser here who knows how.''




Wednesday 27 September 2017

On 26 September the fifth Daniel Marot lecture, organized by foundation Daniel Marot Fund in collaboration with foundation the Dutch interior, will take place in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam / VIDEO: Chatsworth House | Great England house | Home of Dukes of Devonshire Doc...



Jeeves was there yesterday:
On 26 September the fifth Daniel Marot lecture, organized by foundation Daniel Marot Fund in collaboration with foundation the Dutch interior, will take place in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

On the occasion of the first lustrum, the Duke of Devonshire speaks of " Chatsworth, the history, the present and the future of an English country house




Tuesday 26 September 2017

Lady Lucan found dead at London home after being reported missing


See also: 
lord lucan : my husband, Mon 05 Jun 2017 ITV / VIDEO: Lady Lucan Lady Lucan: I'm 'deeply sad' my marriage caused the nanny to die / Lord Lucan’s death certificate granted after more than 40 years

 Lucan ITV: week starting 7 December, day and time to be announced

 Lucan TV Reviews ."I suppose it's not 100% impossible that Lord Lucan is watching too"



Lady Lucan found dead at London home after being reported missing
Aristocrat whose husband famously vanished more than four decades ago has been found dead in Westminster

Wednesday 27 September 2017 01.30 BST Last modified on Wednesday 27 September 2017 03.05 BST

Lady Lucan, whose husband famously vanished more than four decades ago, has been found dead at her home.

Police forced entry to the 80-year-old’s property in Westminster on Tuesday afternoon after she was reported missing, and found her unresponsive.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said: “Police attended an address in Westminster ... following concerns for the welfare of an elderly occupant. Officers forced entry and found an 80-year-old woman unresponsive.

“Police and London ambulance service attended. Although we await formal identification, we are confident that the deceased is Lady Lucan.”

Police said her death is being treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious.

Her son, George Bingham, the 8th Earl Lucan, told the Daily Mail: “She passed away yesterday [Monday] at home, alone and apparently peacefully. Police were alerted by a companion to a three-day absence and made entry today [Tuesday].”

Lady Lucan, formerly Veronica Duncan, was one of the last people to see her husband John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, alive before he disappeared.

He vanished after the murdered body of Sandra Rivett, nanny to his three children, was found at the family home in Lower Belgrave Street, central London, on 7 November 1974.

Even though he was officially declared dead by the high court in 1999, Lucan has reportedly been sighted in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand, and there are even claims that he fled to India and lived life as a hippy called “Jungly Barry”.

The same night as his disappearance, the attacker also turned on Lady Lucan, beating her severely before she managed to escape and raise the alarm at a nearby pub, the Plumber’s Arms.

Lucan’s car was later found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, East Sussex, and an inquest jury declared the wealthy peer the killer a year later.

Roger Bray was the first journalist on Lord Lucan’s doorstep the morning after the dramatic events unfolded, and wrote one of the first newspaper reports about the mystery.

Derrick Whitehouse, head barman at the Plumber’s Arms, told Bray that Lady Lucan “staggered” in and said: “I think my neck has been broken. He tried to strangle me.”

The barman said Lady Lucan was “just in a delirious state” and added: “She just said ‘I’m dying.’

“She kept going on about the children. ‘My children, my children,’ she said. She came staggering in through the door and I gave her all the assistance I possibly could. I’ve only seen her in here once before.”

Whitehouse told Bray that Lady Lucan had “various head wounds” that were “quite severe”, adding: “She was covered in blood. She’d been bleeding profusely when she came in.”

Earlier this year, Lady Lucan, formally named Veronica, Dowager Countess of Lucan, gave a TV interview in which she said she believed Lord Lucan had made the “brave” decision to take his own life.

Ahead of the hour-long documentary interview called Lord Lucan: My Husband, the Truth, Radio Times magazine shared some of what she had told director Michael Waldman.

She said: “I would say he got on the ferry and jumped off in the middle of the Channel in the way of the propellers so that his remains wouldn’t be found – I think quite brave.”

During the ITV programme, she spoke of her own depression and her husband’s violent nature following their marriage in 1963.

Describing how he would beat her with a cane to get the “mad ideas out of your head”, she said: “He could have hit harder. They were measured blows.

“He must have got pleasure out of it because he had intercourse [with me] afterwards.”

Monday 25 September 2017

ANTÓNIO SÉRGIO ROSA DE CARVALHO ( Jeeves / Tweedland ) by MisjaB.



GENTLEMAN FROM PORTUGAL
António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho was born in Lisbon (1953). Because the love of his life he moved to the Netherlands for years now. He is an architectural historian and writes public papers for Público, a Portuguese newspaper, as well. Besides that, he’s the founder of Tweedland, The Gentlemen’s Club. A club of like-minded. In this club, one is not allowed to speak about money and business.

COMMUNICATION
The first time I met António Sérgio was during a TweedRide in Amsterdam. On that summer day, he was not wearing tweeds but a summery seersucker suit. António Sérgio: “Fashion and apparel are nowadays seen as appearance, but it is much more than that. Clothing is a form of communication. It is a symbolic framing. All attributes are a strategy to align with yourself.”
Een echte gentleman: António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho

BE YOURSELF
Clothing has nothing to do with power games, it’s not just appearance. It is important that your inner is in accordance with your appearance. That is also an important difference between a dandy and a gentleman. I love style and quality, style is the DNA of your identity. Oscar Wilde has said it nicely:“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken’

SECOND HAND
‘Today I’m wearing a Colbert by Cordings.  It’s a good quality’ mid-season fabric. I bought it on Portobello Road in London. In Amsterdam, Tommy Page’s shop is my favorite. To me, accessories like braces and ties are very important. I wear only second-hand clothes. And in our home, there are many second-hand items that we have saved.”
Een echte gentleman: António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho

GENTLEMAN
“I regret very much that many people are polite in private and committed to quality. But they have been stopped to maintain these codes in public. But let’s be optimistic, maybe that will be beneficial again.” When ready with photographing, António Sérgio insisted to accompany me to the nearest tram stop. It started to rain, but he took his umbrella. He maintained it above my head. What a kind man he is, a real gentleman!







MisjaB published a very complete and kind profile article about JEEVES
(António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho). Thanks Misja. Was a great pleasure to meet you. JEEVES



Friday 22 September 2017

World's richest woman Liliane Bettencourt dies aged 94 / VIDEO:Liliane Bettencourt, l'héritiere l'Oreal est decedée - Une Querelle fami...



World's richest woman Liliane Bettencourt dies aged 94
Daughter announces death of heir to French L’Oreal empire, who was world’s 14th richest person

Angelique Chrisafis
Thursday 21 September 2017 17.39 BST Last modified on Thursday 21 September 2017 23.11 BST

Liliane Bettencourt, heir to the French L’Oreal hairspray empire and the world’s wealthiest woman, who was at the centre of a long-running French courtroom saga over alleged hangers-on who took advantage of her frailty to elicit money and gifts, has died aged 94.

Bettencourt, whose net worth was estimated at about €33bn (£29bn) this year, was the face of one of France’s biggest cosmetics conglomerates and had once captured the public’s imagination as the nation’s poor little rich girl.

She was the daughter of Eugène Schueller, a chemist and one-time Nazi sympathiser who made a fortune as the inventor of modern hair dye and founder of L’Oréal. Her mother died when she was five, leaving her alone with Schueller whose company she inherited.

Bettencourt hit the headlines in 2007 when members of her entourage were charged with exploiting her failing mental health – leading to a vast inquiry that threatened to engulf the then-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
When Bettencourt’s husband, the politician André Bettencourt, died in 2007, their daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, decided to take legal action against her mother’s eccentric best friend, François-Marie Banier. The dandy photographer, artist and one-time society golden boy was accused of taking advantage of Bettencourt’s frailty to accept almost €1bn worth of gifts, including paintings, life insurance policies and a salary from L’Oreal.

Shocked domestic staff at Bettencourt’s mansion west of Paris whispered how the flamboyant Banier would pee in the flowerbeds, lie on Bettencourt’s bed with his shoes on and make requests for money.

Banier denied the allegations, but it was just the start of a multi-layered legal inquiry that became the nation’s soap opera.

The saga resulted in not only a public family feud but a major political scandal and courtroom drama when the investigation was extended to look at whether Sarkozy and other figures in his party had also taken advantage of the elderly Bettencourt, asking for money from her after it was declared that she had dementia.

The money, alleged to have been given in brown envelopes, was said to have funded Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.

The “Bettencourt affair” tarnished the latter half of Sarkozy’s presidency, and when he lost the 2012 election he was placed under formal investigation for illegal campaign financing and taking advantage of Bettencourt. But the charges against Sarkozy were dropped in October 2013 due to lack of evidence.

In 2015, the photographer Banier was convicted of exploiting Bettencourt and sentenced to three years in jail, fined €350,000 and ordered to pay €158m in damages. He appealed and last year received a suspended prison sentence and a fine but did not have to pay the vast damages.

In the meantime, other cases had opened around the affair, including a court case over the publication of secretly recorded conversations between Bettencourt and her wealth manager which were taped when her butler hid a recorder in her mansion.

Bettencourt had been declared unfit to run her own affairs in 2011 after a medical report showing she had suffered from “mixed dementia” and “moderately severe” Alzheimer’s disease since 2006. She was rarely seen in public after leaving the L’Oreal board in 2012.


“Liliane Bettencourt died last night at home,” her daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers said in a statement. “My mother left peacefully.”




Photographer jailed for multi-billion euro Bettencourt exploitation
François-Marie Banier has been sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay back €15m to L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and her family

 Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
@achrisafis
Thursday 28 May 2015 17.34 BST Last modified on Friday 29 May 2015 00.00 BST

A French celebrity photographer has been found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for exploiting the mental frailty of Liliane Bettencourt, the ageing L’Oréal shampoo heiress, who showered him with gifts including Picasso paintings, life insurance funds and millions of euros in cash.

François-Marie Banier, who had befriended Bettencourt, 25 years his senior, arguing that he was the only person who made her laugh, was given a three-year sentence – six months of which was suspended – and ordered to pay a fine of €250,000 and pay back over €15m to the Bettencourt family.

But judges cleared Eric Woerth, a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government and campaign treasurer for his 2007 presidential campaign. He was acquitted of charges of exploiting Bettencourt’s frailty by taking an envelope of cash from the weak and elderly billionaire who suffers from dementia.

Woerth was also cleared of charges of influence-peddling. He had been accused of using his position of influence to secure favours from Bettencourt’s financial manager – urging him to employ his wife in exchange for receiving the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration. The court acquitted him of all charges.

The Bettencourt saga began in more than seven years ago as a family feud between mother and daughter in one of the richest families in France, but it sparked a political scandal as well a raft of judicial investigations including on tax evasion and illegal party funding.

In 2007, Bettencourt’s daughter began legal action claiming that Banier, a Paris socialite and photographer, befriended her ageing mother and taken advantage of her frail state of mind to persuade her to give him more than €1bn in artworks, insurance policies and cash. The long-running case gripped France and sent shockwaves through the political class, tarnishing Sarkozy, who was placed under formal investigation for illegal campaign financing and taking advantage of Bettencourt after being voted out as president in 2015. Those charges against Sarkozy were dropped in October 2013 due to lack of evidence.

Banier, now 67, who first met Bettencourt, 92, when he photographed her for a magazine, presented himself in court as a rich and well-connected celebrity photographer, a charming eccentric who did not need the money.

Bettencourt, who is estimated to be worth €33bn (£24bn) by Forbes magazine, was alleged to have found a new best friend in the outrageous and eccentric Banier. She showered him with so many gifts that even his own lawyer admitted in court that he had been “drowning in gold” and briefly made him her sole heir.

The court had heard how Bettencourt had been suffering from increasing dementia and, by 2011, was unable to tell what year it was.

From 2006 to 2010, Banier received gifts from Bettencourt worth €414m, including life insurance policies, paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian, manuscripts and cash. In court, Banier conceded that just hearing the figures sparked “an enormous vertigo”. But he said Bettencourt chose to bestow the gifts, it “gave her immense pleasure to do it” and she had been of sound mind. He said she got angry if he tried to turn down gifts. Most of the value of the gifts was paid back before the court case.

Patrice de Mestre, Bettencourt’s wealth manager, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for exploiting her frailty, as was her former lawyer. Martin d’Orgeval, Banier’s partner, was found guilty on the same charges and received a suspended sentence.

Banier and de Mestre will appeal against the verdicts
.

Bettencourt scandal: Key players
7 October 2013

 From the section Europe Share this with Facebook  Share this with Twitter  Share this with Messenger  Share this with Email  Share
It started out as a dispute between the heiress to a cosmetics fortune and her family. Then the row over Liliane Bettencourt's finances escalated as far as the former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.
The case against him has now been dismissed, but others are still facing prosecution.
The affair remains a tangled saga of names, connections, claims and rebuttals. The BBC News website profiles key players in the political drama that has gripped the French public.

Liliane Bettencourt
Reports say Bettencourt mother and daughter are not on speaking terms
The story starts with Liliane Bettencourt, now 87, and the richest woman in France.
She is the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune and holds a 27.5% stake in the company.
Her total wealth is put at about 17bn euros ($21bn; £14bn).
Twenty years ago, she befriended the society photographer Francois-Marie Banier, 62.
Over the years, she gave him gifts worth around 1bn euros. These included cash, life insurance policies and artworks by Picasso and Matisse.
Her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, took the matter to court.
She said Mrs Bettencourt was mentally incompetent and had been exploited by Mr Banier.
Mrs Bettencourt said she was a free woman, in full control of her faculties, and her daughter would just have to accept it.
But the dispute has now widened far beyond its origins.
In 2010 prosecutors opened a separate investigation into Mrs Bettencourt's tax affairs after secret recordings of conversations between the heiress and her wealth manager came to light.
The recordings, made by Mrs Bettencourt's butler, were passed to the police by her daughter.
Transcripts published by the news website Mediapart appear to refer to undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland and the Seychelles.
Mrs Bettencourt admitted tax evasion and promised to put her affairs in order.
But Mrs Bettencourt's political connections came under the spotlight.
Prosecutors began a separate inquiry into Mrs Bettencourt's donations to Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, the UMP.

Nicolas Sarkozy
The Bettencourt affair contributed to negative publicity for Mr Sarkozy
The criminal investigation into the former French president for allegedly receiving illegal funding from Mrs Bettencourt has been dropped.
He lost his presidential immunity from prosecution in mid-June 2012, after his election defeat, and in July of that year, police carried out searches at his Paris home, offices and a law firm in which he owns shares.
It had been alleged that tens of thousands of euros were allegedly funnelled to Mr Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign by Mrs Bettencourt's office.
Individual campaign contributions in France are limited to 4,600 euros (£3,700) annually.
Mr Sarkozy had consistently rejected all accusations of impropriety.

Eric Woerth quit Mr Sarkozy's government in 2010 over the Bettencourt affair
The former French labour minister was also treasurer for the UMP for eight years.
He ran the party's finances at the time of the presidential election in 2007, when Mr Sarkozy was elected.
Mrs Bettencourt's former accountant Claire Thibout has accused Mr Woerth of taking delivery of undeclared campaign donations from the L'Oreal heiress. She says he received 150,000 euros in cash for the UMP in March 2007.
Mr Woerth has vehemently denied the accusations, saying he never received a single illegal euro. But the Bettencourt affair drove him to resign in 2010.
He said he was the victim of a witch hunt by the left because of his responsibility for pension reform and his plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
But in February 2012, he was put under criminal investigation for influence peddling - accused of securing France's highest award, the Legion d'honneur, for Mrs Bettencourt's financial manager, Patrice de Maistre.
In his previous role as budget minister, Mr Woerth had responsibility for pursuing tax dodgers.
Questions have now been raised about whether he turned a blind eye to Mrs Bettencourt's tax evasion.
A prosecutor says he informed the budget ministry of his suspicions about Mrs Bettencourt's tax affairs in January 2009. Mr Woerth denies having blocked an investigation.
He is expected to face trial for his alleged role in the affair.

Florence Woerth
To complicate matters still further, Mr Woerth's wife used to work for Mrs Bettencourt as an investment adviser.
She was employed by Patrice de Maistre, Mrs Bettencourt's wealth manager, but resigned in 2010 after she and her husband were accused of a conflict of interest.
In the secret tapes, Mr de Maistre says clearly that he gave the job to Mrs Woerth after being asked by Mr Woerth to employ her.
So far Patrice de Maistre is the only one of the suspects to have been detained

Patrice de Maistre was Mrs Bettencourt's wealth manager. His company, Clymene, had as its sole function the investment of the estimated 278m euros that Mrs Bettencourt drew annually from her stake in L'Oreal.
He was detained by Bordeaux police for 88 days in early 2012. He was released after posting bail of 4m euros.
He denies accusations by Claire Thibout, who says he asked her for 150,000 euros, which he promised to give "discreetly" to Eric Woerth at a dinner.
In the tapes recorded by Mrs Bettencourt's butler, he is heard to tell the heiress that Eric Woerth is "very nice, and also he's the man who is in charge of your taxes... He's a friend."
Investigators are interested in 4m euros which he allegedly transferred to France from a Bettencourt bank account in Switzerland in 2007-2009.
Mr de Maistre was awarded the Legion d'Honneur. Eric Woerth denies it was in return for employing his wife.
Mr de Maistre is also expected to face trial for his alleged role in the affair.

Claire Thibout says Mr Sarkozy received envelopes of Bettencourt cash before becoming president
Ms Thibout was formerly Mrs Bettencourt's accountant.
She told prosecutors that in March 2007, she had been involved in withdrawing 150,000 euros in cash from Mrs Bettencourt's accounts.
She said she herself took out 50,000 euros - the maximum she was authorised to withdraw - and handed the money to Patrice de Maistre.
Police have checked bank records and have confirmed the withdrawal.
The money was to be given to Mr Woerth in plain envelopes as a donation for the UMP, she said.
Ms Thibout admitted she herself had not witnessed the handover.

Francois-Marie Banier allegedly received expensive gifts from Mrs Bettencourt
Described as an aesthete, Francois-Marie Banier made his name as a photographer. His work has been published in Le Figaro and the New Yorker.
In his youth, Francois-Marie Banier was the friend of 1960s cultural icons like Salvador Dali and Samuel Beckett.
But his friendship with Mrs Bettencourt angered her family. Mrs Bettencourt's daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, called him "the predator".
In December 2009, a court ruled that Mr Banier did have a criminal case to answer for "abuse of mental fragility".
Mr Banier went on trial in July 2010, but the case was quickly adjourned. He denied all the charges, saying he did not take advantage of Mrs Bettencourt.
In December 2010, he made an out-of-court settlement with Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, under which he will not benefit from her mother's fortune.
But he remains under investigation by the authorities, and is expected to face trial for his alleged role in the affair.