Auction gem sparks heated legal battle

What started as an innocent cleaning ends in a heated legal battle. While cleaning out the attic, a French couple discovered a mysterious wooden mask. An antique dealer decided to buy it for a pittance. Good riddance, you might think. Unfortunately not; Six months later the item fetched a staggering amount at auction.  

To quickly get rid of the mask and earn some extra money, the unnamed couple, aged 81 and 88, contacted a local antique dealer. He barely counted any  € 150 down. The couple now states that the antique dealer knew all too well how much the mask was actually worth. 

It turns out to be a very rare piece of which only ten others are known worldwide. The traditional Ngil Fang mask from Gabon was used at weddings, funerals and other rituals. The mask was brought to France by the husband's grandfather. At the time he was colonial governor of Central Congo, present-day Gabon and the Republic of Congo. 

How the couple eventually discovered the rare character? Six months after the sale, they read in the newspaper about the sale of an “extremely rare nineteenth-century mask”. It turned out to be the showpiece at an art auction two days later in Montpellier. The photo accompanying the article painfully confirmed that it was indeed 'their' mask. It became even more painful when the auctioneer hammered it down € 4.1 million. A lot higher than the meager one €150 that the antique dealer gave for it…

It later turns out that instead of displaying the mask in his shop, the antique dealer contacted three auction houses in France immediately after the purchase for an estimate of its monetary value. 

Faced with possible legal proceedings, the trader initially offered the couple €300.000 in compensation. This was politely declined. The court's ruling at the end of October will hopefully provide a definitive solution.