Twelve years ago, Gérard Lhéritier appeared on the cover of the French magazine Winner—the headline of the article inside declared him “The King, Lord of letters and manuscripts”. At the time, he was heralded by manuscript dealers and collectors in Paris, Geneva, London and New York, buying key pieces at sky-high prices and amassing the most important private stock of such documents in the world. Today, he is better known by the media as “the Madoff of manuscripts”—a title he disputes.
Since Lhéritier was charged with fraud by French authorities in 2015, his collection of 135,000 items has been auctioned off for €108m (including fees and expenses), according to the auctioneer Claude Aguttes, who has coordinated 56 sales of his stock. This figure represents less than 12% of the total value invested by the clients, which amounts to €850m. Lhéritier’s company, Aristophil, has also been liquidated.
Now, he is about to stand trial on charges of commercial deception and gang fraud. As for that magazine cover—investigators claim he paid €130,000 for it, alongside the accompanying 23-page article.
Lhéritier’s trial is due to begin today in Paris and is expected to last for 15 sessions until 3 October. According to prosecution documents, the dealer is accused of inflating the value of his assets and using funds from new investors to pay promised returns to earlier investors. With the alleged financial prejudice estimated at €1.2bn, including all costs and interests, a conviction would make this case one of the biggest Ponzi schemes ever uncovered in France.
Lhéritier has declined to comment in the run up to the trial, but has always denied any wrongdoing.
Who is Gérard Lhéritier—and what is he accused of?
The son of a plumber from eastern France, Lhéritier first began investing in jewels and collectable stamps, attracting some legal issues, before starting to collect manuscripts, which he offered for sale in a shared ownership scheme. For a few thousand euros, anyone could buy a share in writings by Napoleon, Beethoven or Baudelaire.
A network of brokers across the country offered this scheme to middle-class savers, promising a 40% return on investment through a “buyout” offer by the company within five years. Contracts were drafted by Jean-Jacques Daigre, a law professor at the Sorbonne, and purchases were certified by a notary.
Now, however, the law professor and the notary are in the dock along with Lhéritier’s collaborators as well as his main supplier, the renowned bookseller Jean-Claude Vrain, who says he was unaware of Aristophil’s business dealings. All deny any wrongdoing.
In 2011, Aristophil’s profits reportedly reached €23m, a tenfold increase since 2007. This success helped Lhéritier to buy the “Address to the French People”, a historical document signed by King Louis XVI and some exceptional illuminated medieval manuscripts from the eighth century. He also bought the two Surrealist manifestos by André Breton, the manuscript of the infamous 120 days of Sodom by the marquis de Sade, and the manuscripts and archives of the late writer Romain Gary.
In 2012, he won almost €170m on the EuroMillions lottery and injected around €40m of his own money into Aristophil. The following year, officers from the French Economic Crime Repression Brigade raided his offices and homes in France, Belgium and Switzerland. Around €100m was seized from his personal and company accounts.
From 2017 to 2022, the auctioneer Aguttes coordinated sales of Lhéritier stock at the auction house Drouot. The most precious works, like Sade’s and Breton’s, were bought by the National Library. Meanwhile 900 lots, including the King’s proclamation and de Gaulle’s papers during his exile in London, were seized as public archives.
Speaking in the past about the case, Lhéritier described his system as “completely legal”, and claimed it was only the seizure of Aristophil’s assets and accounts that caused the company’s collapse. “I only gave a fair price to masterworks which were clearly under-evaluated and predicted the continuous rise of a niche market,” he said. “But, the state decided to destroy my company to get hold of the treasures I had found all around the world.”
