An antiques expert and a cabinet maker have been found guilty of forging and selling nine imitation 18th-century armchairs that they falsely claimed belonged to French royalty, including Marie Antoinette. Georges "Bill" Pallot, a leading furniture expert, and Bruno Desnoues, a former Versailles restorer, sold the fakes through Paris galleries and Sotheby's to the Château of Versailles and private collectors, including Qatari Prince Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani and an Hermès family heir. Pallot was sentenced to four years in prison (44 months suspended), fined €200,000, and banned from working as an expert for five years; Desnoues received three years (32 months suspended) and a €100,000 fine. Both must pay €1.6 million in indemnities. The gallery Laurent Kraemer was acquitted, with the court ruling it was also a victim.
This case matters because it exposes vulnerabilities in the authentication of high-value historical furniture, even at prestigious institutions like the Château of Versailles, which employs leading scholars. The forgery ring exploited trust in expert provenance and the opaque market for royal antiques, defrauding both public museums and elite private collectors. The verdict sends a strong signal about accountability in the art and antiques trade, while the acquittal of Kraemer highlights the difficulty of distinguishing negligence from victimhood in complex fraud cases. The scandal also raises ongoing questions about due diligence at auction houses and galleries handling heritage objects.