Jean-François Charnier, former right arm of Jean-Luc Martinez, ex-boss of the Louvre, was placed in police custody. The survey of the Central Office to Combat Cultural Property, which “Le Monde” was able to consult, reveals serious flaws in acquisition methods.
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The indictment, in May, of the ex-president of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez, in the case of the seven Egyptian objects of illicit origin bought by the Louvre Abou Dhabi, is experiencing a new development. Jean-François Charnier, his right arm in the agency France Museums (AFM), was placed in police custody on Monday July 25, as Revealed it Liberation . Noëmi Daucé, former collaborator of this archaeologist and today conservative at the Louvre, is also questioned by the investigators, who are trying to distinguish the duped and the accomplices within the Grand Bazaar that has become the trade in antiques.
To trace the border between negligence and dishonesty, the Ministry of Culture has, in parallel with judicial education, ordered a report on acquisition procedures in the form of introspection. The conclusions of Marie-Christine Labourdette, Arnaud Oseredczuk and Christian Giacomotto are expected at the end of the summer.
The survey of the Central Office to Combat Cultural Property (OCBC), which Le Monde was able to consult, reveals serious flaws in the methods of acquiring the Louvre Abou Dhabi, whose procedures are reveal less rigorous than those of French museums. The sentence of Adrien Berthelot, former employee of the AFM, pronounced before the police during his hearing, on November 22, 2021, sums up everything: “I think that everyone follows the established procedure and that it is this procedure which seems to have been bad. “Echoing his former colleague Matthieu Thenoz, on December 8, 2021, proposed this roadmap:” You have to review everything: the training of people, the level of control … Everything can be called into question. “
“like a letter to the post”
As a scientific director of the France Muséums agency, Jean-François Charnier had, from 2013 to 2018, one of the very leading roles in the selection of works intended for the Louvre Abou Dhabi. Because of his expertise, and the confidence of his hierarchy, it was up to him to verify the composition of the file and to sign it, this document validating the provenance and the authenticity of the work. In support, a specialized French curator was supposed to shed light. However, in practice, “everything was done over the water, always a little in the mode of emergency”, regrets Matthieu Thenoz to the police.
Thus, in a document which appears in the procedure, Jean-François Charnier would have shown recklessness in the purchase of two cover of Phoenician sarcophagi, devoid of a complete history, with the Geneva Gallery Phoenix Ancient Art , led by the Ali and Hicham brothers accompanied. Despite the doubts issued by his employees, he persisted, and signed. In 2014, when one of the objects was placed under sequestration by Swiss customs due to the absence of a Lebanese export document, Jean-François Charnier suggests, in an email addressed on January 28, 2015 to Jean-Luc Martinez, from “Dramatize”. “If, he adds, you tell Rita [Aoun, then executive director of the tourism and culture department of Abu Dhabi] that it will be settled normally and will be the subject of an info at the next commission , it will pass like a letter to the post. “
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