Multi-million-pound collection of manuscripts from the scandal-hit Aristophil to be auctioned in Paris

A huge collection of manuscripts from investment scheme Aristophil will finally be resold in Paris after a two-year wait. The lots will include this Marquis de Sade’s manuscript ‘La Rouleau de la Bastille’.

• Laura Chesters
  
• 16 Nov 2017

Auction house Aguttes was appointed in October 2016 by the High Court to begin the process of a sale after Aristophil was declared bankrupt in 2015.

Now the first date of a series of auctions over the next six years has been set for December 20 at Drouot in Paris.

300 auctions over six years

The auction house said it had decided to spread the sales over 300 auctions to “avoid saturating the market”.

The first auction will comprise 190 lots and a public exhibition will take place from November 21 at Drouot. It will also offer a series of lectures on the manuscripts. This collection is estimated at €12-16m.

Included in the sales will be treasures such as the will of Louis XVI, the original 39ft-long manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a 15th-century translation in French of Alexander the Great’s biography by Quintus Curtius.