We imagine the headache of real estate agents to write the classified ad. On The good cornerit could have been something like: “For sale, Cro-Magnon shelter and Grotte du Sorcier, beautiful volumes, breathtaking view of the Vézère Valley, pretty rock decorations that give the whole an incomparable historical cachet. Some refreshment work to be planned. Not serious refrain. »
Of course, it didn’t happen like that at all. For such an exceptional sale, it was necessary to call on rather special real estate agents, experienced in the exercise of the marketing of historic properties. It is Denniel Immobilier agencyantique dealers in buildings, which thus obtained the exclusive sales mandate for these two prehistoric sites located in the Dordogne.
“We are still talking about sites that bring us back to the history of humanity”
Even Guillaume Denniel, one of the agency’s two partners, recognizes however that he has in his hands a case that is really out of the ordinary. “Our first sale eight years ago was a prehistoric megalith in Morbihan, but we are more used to the sale of historic castles, explains this art historian, graduate of the Louvre school and specialized real estate agent. in heritage. There, we are still talking about sites that bring us back to the history of humanity. The Cro-Magnon shelter is quite simply the emblematic place of the discovery of the skeletons which gave the name to the first modern man, Cro-Magnon Man, who is neither more nor less than thehomo sapiens sapiens, that is, modern man. The discovery of the shelter had been made in 1868, during work in connection with the railway. The skeletons were then transferred to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
La Grotte du Sorcier, in Saint-Cirq, “contains cave sculptures that are unique in the world: geometric patterns, animals and human representations, including the original figure of the Sorcerer who gives the cave its name… This cave is more visual than Cro-Magnon, located on the side of a cliff and overlooking a magnificent medieval village”, continues our historian-estate agent.
“It took ten years and a lot of money to obtain the entire rock shelter”
If these two sites benefit from legal protection, since they are classified as Historic Monuments, and World Heritage of Humanity by Unesco, they are indeed private domains. “It is not because it is Unesco or a Historic Monument that it necessarily belongs to the State”, specifies Guillaume Denniel, even if they could fall back into the public domain at the end of the sale.
They were both bought by a prehistoric enthusiast about ten years ago: Jean-Max Touron. The latter, which already owns 22 sites, 14 of which are open to visitors, has set itself the task of promoting them.
“Before 2015, there was only a copper plate to remind us that we were on the site of the discovery of Cro-Magnon, the place being used mainly as a waste collection center and car garage for the neighbors” indicates Guillaume Denniel . “It was Jean-Max Touron who enhanced it, by creating signage and a small museum. But it took him ten years and a lot of money to achieve his goals, because the site was divided between several owners, and he had to buy, one by one, houses he had nothing to do with, as well as a piece of road, to obtain the entire rock shelter. »
“We don’t sell square meters, we sell places of memory”
Maintaining these sites to make them accessible to the public required a lot of investment. “Jean-Max Touron spent between 500,000 and one million euros to structure the place, not to mention the purchase price of each plot”, details the real estate agent, to justify the sale price, displayed at 2,251. 000 euros for both areas. “I hear here and there that it’s expensive, but we don’t sell square meters, we sell places of memory, justifies Guillaume Denniel. That’s the whole difficulty in setting the price: you can do it by comparison, but you don’t have a Unesco site for sale every day, or by setting a cost price, that is to say that the owner has invested in it. »
These sites now attract around 20,000 people a year each, “and they are barely breaking even”. “They have the potential to attract 100,000 visitors, assures Guillaume Denniel, provided an innovative project is developed there. At 82, the current owner “no longer feels like developing the place”, and is therefore looking for a buyer with a solid project. The State, which has been eyeing it for a few years, confirmed a few days ago by the voice of the prefect of the Dordogne, that it would “naturally acquire”, and the Ministry of Culture should soon make an offer. “We are currently awaiting the estimate by the Estates”, we answer the Drac (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs) of New Aquitaine.
The real estate agency assures for its part that it cannot “reveal anything” of the current offers but that “these are not sites which are sold in a few weeks”. “We are going to start a process in which we will evaluate the project of potential buyers”, promises Guillaume Denniel.