Thieves Used Neckties to Steal $2.2 Million in Loot From a French Castle That Helped Inspire Versailles

Christina and Patrice de-Vogüé outside the chateau. Courtesy of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Caroline Goldstein, September 23, 2019

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, Seine et Marne, France. Photo by Alain KUBACSI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images. Last week, in the hours before dawn, six masked thieves crept into the private quarters of the lavish 17th-century chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. There, the robbers tied up 90-year-old Patrice de Vogüé and his 78-year-old wife, Cristina, with neckties, according to local police. The couple were otherwise uninjured—chateau management told artnet News that they are now “doing fine”—but the thieves made off with €2 million ($2.2 million) worth of loot.

Despite making off with an impressive haul of emeralds, the thieves didn’t attempt to take any of the tapestries, bronze sculptures, or paintings that adorn the lavish buildings. As of press time, they have yet to be caught.

The estate is often used as a stand-in for Versailles on movie sets, like the 1979 James Bond film Moonrake and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. The dramatic landscape is also used as an event space for lavish gatherings like the 2007 nuptials of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker and yearly Grand Siècle events, where costumed enthusiasts gather to frolic on the expansive lawns in 17th-century garb.

The baroque chateau was built over the course of 20 years under the direction of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV’s finance minister as he was quickly ascending the social strata of the monarchy. Fouquet’s design was revolutionary for uniting the various aspects of the estate: Louis Le Vau was brought on as architect, along with landscape gardener André Le Notre, and renowned painter Charles Le Brun, who together created a harmonious mise-en-scene that would become the hallmark of Louis XIV’s style.

The recent theft wasn’t the first time trouble hit came to the palace, however. Shortly after its completion in 1661, Fouquet was arrested for allegedly embezzling from the king. But even though it turned out to be a ruse concocted by Jean-Baptise Colbert, who took Fouquet’s place as finance minister, in the aftermath of the scandal, Voltaire wrote: “on 17 August at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was a nobody.” Louis XIV responded by ordering his own bigger and better version of Vaux-le-Vicomte, thus heralding the considerably larger palace Versailles.

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Knife attack badly damages work by top French modern artist

Daniel Buren (1938 - ), Peinture [Manifestation 3] © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP © DB - Adagp, Paris.

PARIS (AFP).- An attacker wielding a utility knife has badly damaged a work by the celebrated French conceptual artist Daniel Buren at the Pompidou Centre in central Paris, the museum said on Friday. The work, "Peinture [Manifestation 3]", suffered "serious deliberate damage" in Thursday afternoon's attack by the man, the museum said in a statement. It said that a museum attendant alerted security, and video cameras allowed the rapid finding of the suspect. "He made no claim (over the attack) and was handed over to the police," it said.

An investigation has been opened by the judicial authorities after the museum filed a complaint to police. The artist, 81, has been informed of the incident and the work itself transferred to the stores of the Pompidou Centre to estimate the damage and restoration needed. It will be replaced on public display by another work from the artist. The Pompidou Centre said it understood the suspect was no longer in detention and had been transferred to a psychiatric unit.

"Peinture [Manifestation 3]" was created by Buren in 1967 and shows red and white stripes. It was purchased for the museum's collection in 1986. Buren is perhaps best known for the succession of black-and-white columns he inlaid into the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal complex in central Paris in a hugely controversial installation that opened in 1986.

The damage to the work comes just over a week after a stencilled work by the elusive British street artist Banksy was stolen from outside the Pompidou Centre. The Pompidou, which houses Europe's biggest collection of contemporary art but does not own the Banksy work, filed a police complaint for destruction of property.

© Agence France-Presse
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Court’s New Morrisseau Forgery Decision a “Big Warning to Art Dealers”

Art dealing in Canada may become more transparent, some people hope, in the wake of a groundbreaking court decision issued this week.

Art dealer Donald Robinson of Kinsman Robinson galleries examines the painting at the centre of a Norval Morrisseau forgeries case in a scene from the new documentary There Are No Fakes. https://canadianart.ca/news/courts-new-morrisseau-forgery-decision-a-big-warning-to-art-dealers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20September%205%202019&utm_content=Weekly%20September%205%202019+CID_4897313ce52e65c08a0bb3db20b7c7ca&utm_source=E%20Weekly%20Campaign&utm_term=Courts%20New%20Morrisseau%20Forgery%20Decision%20a%20Big%20Warning%20to%20Art%20Dealers