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- 1. Château de Grignon
Photo : Laurent Bourcier (CC BY-SA 3.0) - See the image in its page
24/2/23 - Heritage - Château de Grignon - In France, an ordinance relating to the financial responsibility regime of public managers has recently modified the conditions under which public managers can be sanctioned for their actions. The "ordinators", i.e. those responsible for decisions, are now (since 1 January 2023) liable to pecuniary sanctions "up to six months’ pay". As the First President of the Cour des Comptes, Pierre Moscovici, said: "Article 15 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen - "Society has the right to hold any public official accountable for his administration" - becomes thus fully adapted to the challenges of the 21st century".
The referral by the Public Prosecutor to the Cour des Comptes to open a contentious investigation into the case of the sale of the furniture of the Château de Grignon (ill. 1), announced two days ago on the institution’s website, is therefore a first, and we are all the more pleased that this decision is based on "information published in various press organs". These press organs, the first to alert us to this scandal, were Le Canard Enchaîné and La Tribune de l’Art on the same day. We had indeed published a very detailed investigation.
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- 2. Jacques Bircklé, master in 1764
Secretary from the Château de Grignon currently on sale - See the image in its page
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- 3. Secretary by Jacques Bircklé presented by the Domaines website at the time of the sale as "style, late 19th century".
- See the image in its page
The investigation will now take place, conducted by the Cour des Comptes, which will "determine how the operation was conducted, whether any rules were broken and, if so, who is responsible". It should be noted that we reported here the sale of another piece of furniture from Grignon, but that nothing was done by the State to recover or buy it back. The antique dealer was acting in good faith, as he had bought it from the person who had acquired it in an apparently regular manner at the disputed sale by the Domaines. He had even called us back to say that he was going to sell it again, worrying about what he should do. Given the complete inaction of the State, he felt legitimately entitled to sell it again, and unfortunately we had no further arguments to dissuade him. Moreover, since then, and this was to be expected, other pieces of furniture have reappeared, and one of our readers, for example, pointed out to us this secretary (ill. 2), for sale on the Internet, which comes from Grignon (ill. 3) and which had been sold as "of style, end of 19th century". Estimated at 30 €, it was finally sold for 1,000 €. It was in fact stamped by Jacques Bircklé, who was received as a master in 1764.
It is to be hoped that this sad affair will establish the responsibilities of those who gave the orders, but also of those who did not fulfil their control mission, and will in the future encourage civil servants responsible for public institutions to take a greater interest in the national heritage.