The controversy fell on them in early January, as dry as a hammer blow.
The auctioneers have been under pressure since a mysterious whistleblower, who calls himself "Axel", goes through their catalogs to track down old coins from the Third Reich.
Its goal: to ban the trade in swastikas, SS badges and other badges of the Hitler regime, regularly put at prices in auction rooms, and "live" on the Internet.
His method: threaten auction professionals with all hassle.
A hushed universe that abhors bad press.
“Intimidation!
»Exclaim the pros of the hammer.
"Axel", draped in his anonymity, has managed since early January to derail business in a dozen cities, Pamiers, Albi, Reims, Puy-en-Velay ... February 3, in Rodez, police came to seize, in an auction house, 17 Nazi objects listed for sale for the next day.
Among other antiques, there was a bronze bust of Hitler, a service of (rusty) fish cutlery marked with small swastikas, the plaque of a German tipped helmet ...
Seconded by Crif and Serge Klarsfeld
A few days earlier, a report to the prosecutor had been made by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (Crif), alerted by "Axel".
“He's doing a lot of research.
We help him on the legal level because the cause is just ”, estimates David-Olivier Kaminski, lawyer of Crif.
The whistleblower can also count on the support of a tutelary figure, the lawyer Serge Klarsfeld.
“This gentleman seems sincere and efficient.
I give him my blessing to convince the organizers.
Earning money on the sale of characteristic Nazi objects, that seems excessive to me, ”confides the tireless fighter for the memory of the Shoah.
Tuesday February 16 in Lyon, a "militaria" meeting was to honor 22 objects marked with the swastika or the Nazi eagle.
The Bremens-Belleville study preferred to surrender before the battle.
“Victory!
"Axel" exults in front of his computer, five days before D-Day. Out of the blue, he grabs his cell phone, activates the "hidden number" function and murmurs in a greedy voice: "We're going to check!
"Then, the tone fluted in the receiver:" Hello madam, I was interested in your Tuesday sale but lots are missing… Is that normal?
"A woman answers, hesitantly:" It was withdrawn by the seller ... as they are objects, a little ... There you go.
»« Regrettable!
»Dares Axel.
"I agree", concludes his interlocutor.
Masked vigilante and freemason
"This is all bullshit, they were afraid and canceled the thing," he gauges, crouching in the soft back of an old armchair.
Man displays the silhouette of a bon vivant, and the swift speech of one who has rolled his bump in all worlds, including that of the powerful.
Forbidden to say more: "Axel" is keen on his anonymity.
"These people are crazy, I do not want to find myself with neo-Nazis in front of my door", he sweeps.
We can also guess that the costume of the anonymous vigilante pleases him at least as much as the khaki Barbour jacket he wore over his white shirt - the marble, which runs from floor to ceiling in his opulent house in the Paris region, does not heat up. Room temperature…
"My primary motivation is justice," pleads this grandson of an antique dealer, passionate collector and assiduous member of the Grand-Orient de France.
It's macabre to get dough on a bust of Hitler or a Jewish star.
The guys who sell this don't give a damn about the world.
And I want to clarify that I am not a Jew.
I try to do civic work, it is the work of the Freemason.
"
In his office, two computers are always on.
One to work.
The other to hunt on interencheres.com the good deal that will bring to his living room, or to his wife's wardrobe, an additional touch of luxury.
This is how he came across the program of a sale in Soissons at the beginning of January, displaying among 400 objects, 18 flags, armbands, daggers, Hitler belt buckles.
Scandalized, he calls the gendarmes.
Then, the mayor.
Then, the deputy.
“Nobody is moving, so I call the local press.
»Outcry in the Soissonnais!
The sale, under pressure from public opinion, was canceled.
Sale authorized, exhibition prohibited
According to article R-645-1 of the Penal Code, nothing prevents however from setting a price for objects to the glory of the executioner of the twentieth century.
But it is strictly forbidden to exhibit them.
The auction houses have therefore adopted the habit of blurring, or masking with a small white sticker, the center of the swastikas on German relics.
A process "a little hypocritical, it's true, concedes a professional.
Everyone can guess what is below.
But that respects the law ”.
Legal, yes.
But desirable?
The ethical debate rages on.
At the direction of Interenchères, where 2 million items are exchanged online per year, “some think that we should not be more royalist than the king, that it is not our role to stay ahead of the law.
Others consider that it is necessary to guard against bad buzz ”, explains the president of the management board, Dominique Le Coënt.
“Each merchant makes his own morality.
For my part, I believe that it is not useful to provoke ”, slice Jean-Pierre Osenat, president of the National Union of voluntary auction houses (Symev).
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But in the small auction rooms, used to regularly "passing" the memories of the attics, we do not always hear it that way.
“These objects are taken from the war by grandfathers, found in the cupboards.
We are not in the case of neo-Nazis who have this decoration in their living room!
assures Philippe Casal, boss of a study in Puy-en-Velay.
We have an audience of collectors.
I don't have shaved heads in the front row… ”
"It's easy to take it out on us"
“Where will we stop if we start to select what, in history, has the right to exist?
»Asks a commissioner from the South-West, who recently suffered the storm« Axel ».
He retains the "odious" memory of being "passed throughout the region for the service fascist".
"I can't sleep anymore," breaths the specialist.
It's easy to attack us, and it's also easy to move forward masked ... "Complaints that leave Axel unmoved:" People who trade in Nazi objects, there is reason to spoil them life, ”he thinks.
In his standoff, Axel lost a round on February 6 at Fécamp.
Not only did the auctioneer not give in, but he even quipped, on the look of the same not afraid, during the session live on the Internet: "A hello to Axel, if he came back from the Greeks… ”Two days earlier, on the telephone, he begged him to“ go and show himself ”across the Aegean Sea.
"Does he want to provoke me?"
I will do my best!
"Promises Axel, still furious at having seen the bidding rise for" a rare Jewish star, in orange-yellow cloth, black print, not cut ".
Estimated 150 euros, it left on a hammer blow at 650 euros.
