That was more than two years ago. In October 2022, as the administration and students moved into the brand-new Saclay campus, and INRAE researchers taped up their last boxes to join them, housekeeping was in full swing in the nooks and crannies of the various buildings. Concentrating on the complex inauguration of Saclay, AgroParisTech's administration was also busy cleaning out its historic premises. When you move, you sometimes come across old things, sometimes treasures. In the past, however, AgroParisTech was not concerned with its cumbersome past, and tended to consider that anything to be found in the attics of the estate belonged to the first category.

This is how a whole range of furniture came to be auctioned off on a government website, for a derisory price. The furniture was said to be in the Louis XVI "style". In other words, contemporary furniture imitating the style of the period, with little heritage value. A few days on line without advertising, quickly bought, quickly resold, this time at Drouot, where a fine (and honest!) collector alerted our friends from the Sites et Monuments association: "Hello, I've just bought some remarkable furniture from the Château de Grignon, well below its real value.

After a little research, the scandal broke: in support of Sites et Monuments, Le Canard Enchainé and the specialist website La Tribune de l'Art published an initial article packed with details of the extent of the fiasco (Canard article available on the Sites et Monuments website).

One of the chests of drawers sold as "style" when in fact it is "period" at both auctions (Domaines and Drouot).

Photo taken from La Tribune de l'Art, in a second article dedicated to the artist:

https://www.latribunedelart.com/une-commode-de-nicolas-petit-venant-de-grignon-en-vente-sur-internet

In view of the obvious shortcomings identified by journalists, both from the Ministry of Agriculture, to which AgroParisTech reports, and from the Ministry of Culture and its Direction Nationale d'Intervention Domaniale (DNID), and given the media coverage of the issue, an investigation was launched. At the end of February 2023, the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Auditors referred the matter to the Court with a view to opening a contentious investigation into the matter. For the Court, this was a major first, as this procedure had only been possible since January 1, 2023.

Although reassured by the fact that such a procedure was indeed underway, we at Grignon 2000 decided not to shoot the ambulance, contenting ourselves with remaining factual and simply relaying the information available to us at the time. Despite careful monitoring by Sites et Monuments, we have had no news since the procedure was initiated, and the last few weeks have finally seen the light of day.

Four people were convicted at the end of December: two members of the school management and two people from the estates. You can find the full court judgment at this link.

The two AgroParisTech representatives were fined €4,000 and €5,000 respectively. They are accused of"having sold furniture stored at Grignon in disregard of the rules applicable to the management of property of historical and cultural interest to the State, in particular with regard to the essential principle of inalienability, which protects property belonging to the public domain".

In addition to the first scandal of prestigious furniture being disposed of with no regard for its heritage and historical value, the result of this botched sale is a serious loss of revenue for the French state. Indeed, bought for a pittance because identified as worthless (€30 or €40) and resold at Drouot several dozen times their purchase price, but close to their real value (a few hundred to a few thousand euros), the cumulative financial loss of these sales at a low price is €220,000.

Our warmest thanks go to our friends at La Tribune de l'Art and Sites et Monuments for the vital role they played in this alert (after the sale was revealed, their two presidents were heard as witnesses in the proceedings).

For more information on the verdict and its implications, you can find here the detailed article by Julien Lacaze, president of Sites et Monuments: https://www.sitesetmonuments.org/La-Cour-desptes-condamne-des-fonctionnaires-de-l-AgroParisTech-and-des-Domaines-pour-la-vente-du-mobilier-du-chateau-de-Grignon