An emperor of China at Versailles

18/12/24 - Acquisition - Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon - Patience is the mother of virtue, the Versailles teams must be saying to themselves as they watched an impressive Sèvres porcelain biscuit slip away in the spring, its reappearance causing quite a stir at the Hôtel Drouot: estimated at €20/30,000 by expert Maxime Charron, this one was snapped up at Auctie’s for €170,000 hammer - €217,600 including fees - and thus easily exceeded the funds set aside by Versailles, whose emissary was in the room and could just see the bids soar. Luck smiled in the end, however, as it only took a few months for this model to appear on the market again: a new example made its timely appearance at a sale (see the news item of 16/12/24) at Artcurial, in time for…