Word: vigoroux
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Jean Vigoroux, former New York agent for Georges Joseph Demotte, the French antiquarian, is on trial in Paris, accused of breach of confidence by his former employer. The hearings have apparently degenerated into a character duel between the pot and kettle. M. Demotte's specific charges are that M. Vigoroux embezzled $7,000, about half of the receipts from certain art works sold to American collectors and museums, and made away with Persian manuscripts valued at 1,000,000 francs. M. Vigoroux's testimony turns on the following allegations...
...works specified by M. Vigoroux as spurious include 1) A ceramic piece attributed to Lucca della Robbia, 15th Century Florentine sculptor, sold to an official of the Metropolitan for $3,000, and "not worth a sou." (The Metropolitan contains only one della Robbia?a terra cotta bas-relief entitled Prudence, bought in 1921 under the bequest of Joseph Pulitzer.) 2) A 15th Century statue of St. Paul, sold to Assistant Curator Breck, of the Metropolitan, for $3,000. 3) A bas-relief group, Les Lansquenets (a former type of German footsoldier; the figures were called "devils" by the people...
...attacks on the authenticity of long esteemed statues continued in the testimonies and denials of various collectors, and in the many explanations of the intricacies of the art of manufacturing ancient masterpieces. Demotte and his former New York representative, Vigoroux, figured generously in the dispute...