Sale expert Eric Turquin said the work was fresh to the market and that monkeys are a "fashionable subject, very funny."
Turquin had less to laugh about at the start of the month, when Le Singe Antiquaire, presented as a work by Chardin and granted an estimate of €400,000-600,000, was withdrawn from the Eve sale on June 3 after former Louvre curator Pierre Rosenberg questioned the attribution. Turquin said the work had generated enormous interest even though it had always been considered a strange Chardin. It is also considered by some to be the pendant of another monkey picture - displayed as a Chardin at the Louvre throughout Rosenberg's tenure.
