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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGuillotine is sold for 8,000 euros
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/arts/guillotine-auction.htmlWho Buys a Guillotine? Someone Who Wants an Amusing Acquisition
By Alex Marshall
July 18, 2018
A guillotine offered at auction in Nantes, France, in 2014. A copy of the device was sold in Paris last week. Credit Damien Meyer/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
Christophe Février, a businessman and father of four from the small town of Château-Gontier in northwest France, decided in 2014 that there was something he must have: a guillotine.
He had seen one offered at auction in Paris. It was 10 feet tall, with an oak frame and a few dents in the blade, and had the French words for Armies of the Republic etched into its metal plates. It had not actually been used to execute people during the French Revolution, but it had historical value: It was made in the mid-19th century, around the time Frances monarchy was abolished for a second time.
Lady Gaga tried to buy the guillotine in 2011, said Mr. Février, 48, in an email. But she lost out to a Russian collector, who paid 223,000 euros, or about $260,000 at current exchange rates.
The Russian faced a problem, however: France does not allow the export, or import for that matter, of instruments of torture. So the guillotine stayed in its long-term home, a Paris jazz club called Le Caveau des Oubliettes, where it continued to surprise tourists.
This month, the device came up for auction again after the club went bankrupt. Bidding lasted just two minutes. Mr. Février won, paying 8,000 a bargain, some might say.
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Guillotine is sold for 8,000 euros (Original Post)
dalton99a
Jul 2018
OP
3catwoman3
(23,812 posts)1. I think this is...
...sick and creepy.
cbreezen
(694 posts)2. A fascinating bit of history...
I can't imagine being put in a queue for such a purchase, but the guillotine is an artifact.
MFM008
(19,776 posts)3. Looks like it was used
........