Call for Clouseau: Elysee Palace loses hundreds of pieces of art

FRENCH detectives are investigating after hundreds of valuable works of art and pieces of antique furniture vanished from the Elysée Palace and other presidential residences.

The 700 items include bronze sculptures Empire chairs and a table from the 19th century, an 18th-century Régence chair and 17th-century Savonnerie carpets. Investigators do not know if they have been misplaced, forgotten in a storeroom – or stolen.

In the past seven years, Elysée officials filed 81 complaints over the suspected theft of 122 sculptures, paintings or photographs, plus 546 pieces of furniture and other objects, believed to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

A police source said: “There appears to been a shocking degree of carelessness. These items weren’t taken from an auction house or a private apartment, but from the president’s official residences where security is extremely high. Investigators will be looking whether they were stolen by staff.”

Paris is notorious for art and jewellery thefts, but the disappearance of so many precious historical and cultural artefacts from official residences is embarrassing for the establishment. Poat lice said this month they were investigating seven suspected art thefts at the Elysée, but it has emerged that many more items have vanished.

If lost crockery items are counted individually, the list of missing objects totals 57,165 items. A porcelain serving dish spotted on eBay in 2014 was identified as part of a set ordered by President René Coty in the Fifties. The revelations follow a meticulous stocktake with staff checking inventories going back to the 19th century.

Items have vanished from the Pavillon de la Lanterne – the president’s weekend retreat in Versailles, Fort Brégançon on the Mediterranean where Emmanuel Macron received Theresa May last summer, and other state châteaux used by the president, as well as his main residence, the Elysée in Paris.

It was only in 2017 that a reliable inventory was drawn up after a five-year hunt for missing items: around 50 were found. A bronze Louis XV chandelier thought to have been at the Elysée was found in a storeroom, and two Palace sculptures turned up in the capital’s Hôtel de Marigny, where the president receives visiting foreign dignitaries.

Surveillance has now been tightened. The police source said: “The president’s office has often been slow to report suspected thefts. It’s taken two years in some cases.”