An elderly French couple who unwittingly sold a rare African mask worth $4.6 million for a mere $165 has lost a court battle to annul the auction sale of the mask. The couple sold the mask to a dealer they’d hired to help them clean out their attic.
According to the BBC, the second-hand art dealer later sold the Ngil mask — which was made by the Fang people of Gabon in Central Africa — at an auction for €4.2 million, or about $4.6 million.
The couple reportedly sold the mask to the dealer for €150, which is about $165. Only about 10 of the Gabonese masks are believed to exist.
The French couple filed a lawsuit and claimed that the dealer failed “to provide pre-contractual information” and committed “a breach of consent,” per CNN. However, a court in Alès, France, ruled against the couple on Dec. 19.
The court ruled that the couple failed to appreciate the mask by keeping it in their attic. Noting that the couple had not hired any art experts to learn “the true historic and artistic value” of the Ngil mask before they agreed to sell it to the art dealer for the agreed-upon price. The court also noted that the art dealer had no expert knowledge of African art or prior knowledge of the mask’s “singular value.”
The elderly couple, identified as Mr. and Mrs. Fournier, was also chastised by the court for “their carelessness and casualness.”
Mr. Fournier inherited the Gabonese mask from his grandfather, René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier, who served as a colonial governor in Central Africa in the early 20th century.
The art dealer denied knowing that it was so valuable when the mask was purchased and said he offered the couple €300,000 when he learned its…
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