The Museum of Fabric Printing in Mulhouse recovers part of its stolen collection

2023-12-18 16:11:38

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published 2 hours ago, Updated 1 minute ago

Among the stolen objects from the Museum of Fabric Printing are more than 3,500 textile sample books. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

Victim of “massive thefts” in 2018, the institution found 76 Hermès scarves on Monday, out of the hundreds that were stolen.

Five years after massive thefts, the Museum of Fabric Printing in Mulhouse recovered, Monday December 18, 76 Hermès scarves out of the hundreds that were stolen from it, we learn France Info .

«We relied on the work of piecing (inventory) which was carried out within the museum, which established that 219 Hermès squares, as well as approximately 3000 books of works, listing the fabrics produced over the ages, were stolen“, in addition to Gallé vases, the head of the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), Colonel Hubert Percie-du-Sert, told AFP.

The facts date back to 2018. During an investigation carried out jointly by the Mulhouse judicial police and the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), the institution’s conservation delegate Jean-François Keller recognized having carried out part of the flights reported France Blue Alsace . He is then indicted and incarcerated. Released in July 2019, he is today under judicial control, again according to France Info. During his interrogation, the conservation officer claimed to have wanted revenge on his superiors. “He saw the museum going down the drain and that made him despair”explained his lawyer Me Marc Staedelin, at Figaro in 2019.

Also read: The mystery of the missing fabrics from the Mulhouse Museum

Jean-François Keller was accused of stealing numerous valuable objects belonging to the establishment, including more than two hundred Hermès squares. Without forgetting two Gallé vases, worth 200,000 to 300,000 euros. While he intended to put them up for auction in Paris, at Sotheby’s. It was the company, by wanting to verify the origin of the objects, which contributed to the opening of the investigation.

The pieces are partly resold on eBay, with a PayPal account: “These resales were done through eBay, from person to person. explains to our colleagues France Info Hubert Percie du Sert, the boss of OCBC in charge of the case. “We found them based on the different buyers who had contacted the thief through eBay. Sometimes one by one. And then, we found some of them in batches. We will probably restore others in view of the research which will continue.he clarified.

In addition to the Hermès scarves, other pieces, including more than 3,500 sample books of inestimable value, were stolen. A giant inventory of the museum’s collections, launched in 2020, made it possible to find around fifty books, including several on a general public classified ads site.