HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hôtel Drouot is a large
auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
venue 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, it is referred to as (; "ninth"). The arrondissement, called Opéra, is located on the right bank of th ...
, 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. Other locations used to exist: 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 multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
,
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
,
Artcurial Artcurial is a French auction house which has its headquarters at the historic Hôtel Marcel Dassault in Paris. History The Artcurial art gallery was created in June 1975 by François Dalle, then CEO of L'Oréal, at 9, Avenue Matignon. Artcuria ...
, and Ader-Picard-Tajan.


History

The Hôtel Drouot was inaugurated on 1 June 1852. During World War II and the German occupation of France, a large number of artworks from collections that had been owned by Jews passed through Drouot, which was as a result included on the Art Looting Investigation Unit list of Red Flag names. From 1976 to 1980, while its present building was being constructed, sales took place in the former Gare d'Orsay. 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 BNP Paribas (; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial instituti ...
. 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, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
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.


See also

Alphonse Bellier


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