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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 15 november 2017

Rare manuscripts to be sold from alleged Paris pyramid scam

By PHILIPPE SOTTO to new investors to finance thing,” he added.
Associated Press repayments to earlier ones. The flagship work of the first
PARIS (AP) — Thousands of Lheritier was given pre- auction will be the Marquis
French investors are hop- liminary charges of orga- de Sade’s manuscript, a
ing to recover some of nized fraud and Aristophil 12-meter-long scroll made
the money they lost in an was placed in liquidation up of 33 sheets pasted
alleged pyramid scheme proceedings in 2015. The end to end and covered
when a collection of rare case has yet to be sent to on both sides with fine and
manuscripts goes up a French court. legible handwriting. Its val-
for auction starting next Auctioneer Claude ue has been estimated at
month. Aguttes, who was appoint- between 4 million to 6 mil-
The 130,000-piece collec- ed by French courts to pre- lion euros ($4.7 million-$7.1
tion has been estimated to serve, secure, sort, assess million.)
be worth a sum that could and auction the works, told Another major work at the
run eight or nine figures. It The Associated Press that December auction will be
includes the original 1785 some 18,000 French private the original 1924 manu- The original manuscript of “The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School
of Libertinage,” a scandalous and pornographic novel written
manuscript for “The 120 customers — most of them script for the first “Surreal- by French writer Marquis de Sade while jailed in the Bastille pris-
Days of Sodom,” the ex- with little familiarity in the ist Manifesto.” Written by on is displayed prior to the auction of the Aristophil Collections,
plicit and ultimately influ- specialized market for rare French writer Andre Breton, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017.
ential novel the Marquis de documents — were lured in it is considered the found- Associated Press
Sade wrote in the Bastille by the promise of profits. ing text of one of the most
prison. To convince gullible cus- significant literary and artis- ued at 5 million to 6 million Churchill Candee has
A judge ordered the docu- tomers to invest, Aristophil tic movements of the 20th euros ($5.9 million-$7.1 mil- been cited as a source of
ments seized three years allegedly dispatched bro- century. The document lion.) inspiration for the heroine
ago as part of a fraud in- kers across France to make is part of a set of Breton’s The Titanic testimony writ- Rose in James Cameron’s
vestigation. Other valuable sales pitches, buyers told works that has been val- ten by survivor Helen film “Titanic.”q
highlights are a hand-writ- investigators.
ten testimony by an Ameri- Clients could either pur-
can survivor of the Titanic chase the works outright or
and a text written by King as joint owners, depending
Louis XVI a few months be- on how much they put in.
fore his beheading during Auctioneer Aguttes offered
the French Revolution. to turn over manuscripts
The so-called Aristophil col- to the minority of investors
lection will be gradually who owned them in full. But
sold at the prestigious Ho- “90 percent of them pre-
tel Drouot auction house in ferred that they be sold,”
Paris. he said.
About 300 auctions are ex- The works with joint owner-
pected to take place over ship will be auctioned off
at least six years. Top lots and the proceeds distrib-
for the first sale, scheduled uted by court receivers to
for December 20, were former Aristophil clients in
displayed Tuesday outside proportion to their starting
Paris. stake.
The works came from Because the documents
Aristophil, a company in were sold and resold at in-
Paris that police officers flated prices through the
searched in November alleged pyramid scheme,
2014 as part of an inves- Aguttes does not think the
tigation into a suspected final bids will reach the pric-
pyramid scam. es paid by the investors.
Founder Gerard Lheritier Losses for many works
allegedly promised clients could reach 80-90 percent,
high profits from invest- Aguttes said.
ments in the old books and “They are going to lose
manuscripts the company money indeed,” the auc-
acquired. tioneer said. But, since the
Financial stakes in the works manuscripts do exist, “they
were then allegedly resold are not going to lose every-