“Come on, come on, wake up in the room.” After a lively start, the auction of the personal collection of santon maker Marcel Carbonel stretches for length this Thursday in Marseille. The auctioneer from the De Baecque house is happy to be a showman: “It’s a given, it’s a very beautiful iconography of a nativity scene, it’s worth it! “. Or, the hammer raised while presenting a plaster lot: “I’m calling on your creativity, you can paint them yellow, blue, rainbow. » Then, a disgruntled brunette under the guise of humor, when the sale of a set of six Napoleon busts based on Pellegrini molds, was barely bid at 80 euros: “We should have kept them for the Corsican sale , we would have sold them better! “.
In the room, although full, Gilbert Orsini is patient. Santon maker in Allauch, he spotted “exceptional nativity scenes” and is not surprised by this drop in pace as certain batches, to hear him, concern pieces with “accidents” and “misses”, as the owner modestly puts it. catalog: “It’s broken, what do you do with it?” These are workshop funds. Besides, these are not in the window. »
“We are the city with the most beautiful collection of figurines”
The mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan is also in the ranks. He gets up regularly to see the lots on display up close but says he is there “privately”, for his grandmother. “I’m going to buy something inexpensive, since I was little she’s been showing me collections of figurines,” he confides. I was always raised with that, for us it matters. » Does he regret that the collection is dispersing? In any case, he does not show the sign: “We are the city which has the most beautiful collection of figurines, we have the museum of Old Marseille, the museum of Chateau-Gombert, and thousands of pieces that we have need to list, inventory. »
The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur has in any case gained a Virgin and Child. “We were looking for one, it came out at 1,500 euros, it was within the budget we had set,” smiles Father Olivier, who confides “I really like everything Provencal and read the mass in Provençale.” . Hortense also fell for a Virgin in baked and gouache white clay, under a glass globe, and sold for 750 euros: “I think the object is magnificent, and it is linked to the history of Marseille. It will adorn a prayer corner at home, I’ve been wanting a globe for a long time. I couldn’t have imagined going this high! »
Director of an associative museum in Marseille, Evelyne Bremondy also participated in the auction. “It’s a little soft, almost a little long,” she wonders at the back of the room. “I think people imagined that it would reach extraordinary prices, when it is completely reasonable,” she notes. There is a complete nursery which has just started at 100 euros for around thirty subjects, which are very well made. Someone who wants to make one and goes to the Santon Fair is in for a lot more. There is a lack of awareness, which is a shame. »