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The greatest antiques auction on earth - Fashion of Collecting Antiques
Author: Sergio Vargas
http://www.vialin.com
Fine Art Antiques and Collectibles by San Cristobal
This article might reproduced with permission of Sergio Vargas mail at vialin.com and maintaining the credits intact.
I read on a Sunday morning newspaper: “one of the must things to do before you are 40 is to own a value antique or fine art piece".
The taste for antiques is largely on the increase. Before the eighties appreciated by the connoisseur, now no home, however unassuming, having any pretensions to refinement, to own a genuine piece to satisfy their selves and show a market value artwork.
The fashion of collecting antiques, incremented by the emphasis of interior decorators or following the décor of the home of artists and popular leaders and open to all public using internet at today.
The Greatest Art Auction – The fall of France
The Bastille was stormed by the French Republicans in 1789. The Fine Art factories and artisans were dissolved in the next year and in 1792 there began what was probably the greatest sale of paintings, art objects and antiques in history.
After Louis XVI had been guillotined and Marie Antoniette was to follow him shortly, the sale went out on the September 1793 auctioning the furniture of the Versailles Palace.
The sale started every day at 10 am and continues until 8 pm and required one year. Most of the 17,182 items were sold for the fraction of the real value, pretending by the actors on getting rid of the monarchy.
On present days, I pull my hair trying to understand how this could happen and why I was not there. Let's examine facts in detail:
“France Revolution: The last mad scramble and the most extensive of all. - In spite of the subterfuges of its agents, the Republic, having stolen immensely, and although robbed in its turn, could still hold on to a great deal; and first, to articles of furniture which could not be easily abstracted, to large lots of merchandise, also to the vast spoil of the palaces, chateaux and churches; next, and above all, to real estate, fixtures and buildings. To meet its expenses it put all that up for sale, and whoever wants anything has only to come forward as a buyer, the last bidder becoming the legal owner and at a cheap rate."
The chronicles state the English and others collectors were buying furniture in the 18th century and continue to do so n the 19th century.
Revolutionaries never had been in good lids…
Here are found chances for a good many bargains, and especially with objects of art. "The titles alone of the articles carried off, destroyed or injured, would fill At France "having to turn a penny on the proceeds of sales," throw on the market all they can, "avoiding reserving" objects of public utility and sending collections and libraries to auction with a view to get their percentages.
On the other hand, nearly all these commissioners are brokers or second-hand dealers who alone know the value of rarities, and openly depreciate them in order to buy them in
themselves, "and thus ensure for themselves exorbitant profits."
In certain cases the official guardians and purchasers who are on the look-out take the precaution to disfigure " precious articles " so as to have them bought by their substitutes and accomplices: "for instance, they convert sets of books into odd volumes, and take
machines to pieces; the tube and object-glass of a telescope are separated, which pieces the rogues who have bought them cheap know how to put together again." Often, in spite of the seals, they take in advance antiques, pieces of jewelry, medals, enamels and engraved stones;" nothing is easier, for "even in Paris in Thermidor, year II., agents of the municipality use anything with which to make a stamp, buttons, and even large pennies, so that whoever has a sou can remove and re-stamp the seals as he pleases;" having been successful, "they screen their thefts by substituting cut pebbles and counterfeit stones
for real ones." Finally, at the auction sales, "fearing the honesty or competition of intelligent judges, they offer money (to these) to stay away from the sales; one case is cited where they have knocked a prospective bidder down."
Author: Sergio Vargas
http://www.vialin.com
Fine Art Antiques and Collectibles by San Cristobal
This article might reproduced with permission of Sergio Vargas mail at vialin.com and maintaining the credits intact.
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