Hôtel Drouot is a large

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

house in Paris, known for fine art, antiques, and antiquities. It consists of 16 halls hosting 70 independent auction firms, which operate under the umbrella grouping of Drouot. The firm's main location, called Drouot-Richelieu, is situated on the Rue Drouot in the

9th arrondissement of Paris The 9th arrondissement of Paris (''IXe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as the neuvième (; "ninth"). The arrondissement, called Opéra, is loc ...

, on a site once occupied by the Paris Opera's

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

. The nearest Métro station is

Richelieu - Drouot Richelieu (, ; ) may refer to: People * Cardinal Richelieu (Armand-Jean du Plessis, 1585–1642), Louis XIII's chief minister * Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu (1582–1653), French Carthusian bishop and Cardinal * Louis François Armand ...

. Other locations are Drouot-Montaigne, Drouot-Montmartre, and Drouot-Véhicules. Details of forthcoming auctions are published in the weekly ''Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot'', sold at newsstands and by subscription. In 2008 Hôtel Drouot was ranked fifth by sales amongst Paris auction houses, after

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

, Christie's,

Artcurial Artcurial is a French auction house which has its headquarters at the historic Hôtel Marcel Dassault in Paris. History In 2001, Nicolas Orlowski acquired the Artcurial Gallery from L'Oréal.Béatrice De RochebouetNicolas Orlowski, monsieur Artcu ...

, and Ader-Picard-Tajan.

History

The Hôtel Drouot was inaugurated on 1 June 1852. From 1976 to 1980, while its present building was being constructed, sales took place in the former

Gare d'Orsay Gare d'Orsay is a former Paris railway station and hotel, built in 1900 to designs by Victor Laloux, Lucien Magne and Émile Bénard; it served as a terminus for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans (Paris–Orléans Railway). It was the f ...

. In 2000, reform of the monopolistic French auction laws, regulated through the system of ''commissaires-priseurs'', opened Drouot up to international competition. It is now owned by a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. Hundreds of sacred relics were sold at the Hôtel Drouot auctions. Those being sold include Native American, Eskimo and

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

artefacts. Despite the pleas of the United States embassy, urging a stop to the 2014 sale of items cherished by the Navajo and Hopi people, the items were sold at auction. The Navajo Nation was only able to buy back seven of the possibly 270 items that were being sold.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Guillaumin, Paul (1986). ''Drouot, hier et aujourd'hui''. Paris: Les Éditions de l'Amateur.

External links

*
Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot

France Magazine No.62, Summer 2002: "Bidding on a Comeback" by Nicholas Powell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Drouot Retail companies established in 1852 French auction houses Buildings and structures in Paris Economy of Paris Buildings and structures in the 9th arrondissement of Paris 1852 establishments in France