A French antiques dealer bought a mask for 150 euros and sold it for 4 million: “It is not a scam.”

The Fournier family was clearing out their vacation home in the south of France in the summer of 2021 when they found an antique wooden mask. The mask was brought from Gabon by the man’s grandfather, a former colonial official in Africa.

An antique dealer bought the mask along with spears, musical instruments, and some other items. The collection of vintage items earned the Fournier family €150, assuming they were virtually worthless.

In March 2022, the couple read about an African mask that had sold for €4.2 million at an auction in Montpellier: a veil mask, made by the Fang people of Gabon in the 19th century. There are only about ten copies worldwide. That’s when they realized this was the mask they were sold and felt cheated.

Their accusation is that the antique dealer was aware of the scarcity of the mask when he bought it from an 88-year-old man and an 81-year-old woman. He would have known that the mask was worth a lot, because he never displayed it in his own store, but rather immediately went to auction houses.

The dealer has always denied that he was aware of this rarity. He says he evaluated the mask after purchasing it. This resulted in an amount of 300 thousand euros. In the last auction, the amount was raised several times.

The merchant then offered the couple €300,000, the original valuation amount. He withdrew that offer when Fournier’s family took him to court. They claim that he undermined their trust and defrauded them.

Petty and neglectful

The judge now rules that is not the case. The couple should have done much better research on the value of the mask themselves. The ruling accuses the Fournier family of “frivolity” and “negligence.” Furthermore, the antiques dealer was not a specialist in African art and, according to the judge, could not have been expected to know the value of the mask. Therefore, the purchase does not have to be canceled and the couple will not receive any compensation, the judge ruled.

Meanwhile, another party came forward feeling aggrieved: the state of Gabon. It is believed that the art was stolen and that the mask should be returned to Gabon. The judge will rule on the legality of this claim later. The story in the Fournier family case is far from over. They are appealing the ruling.