Collecting history: Ancient antiquities dealer Galerie Chenel offers the world’s oldest collectables
From first-century artefacts to ancient Egyptian sculpture, the Paris gallery deals in some of the world’s rarest and most exquisite objects. But what truly sets them apart is their curatorial eye.
“It’s about the coup de coeur,” says Ollivier Chenel, describing what attracts him to an object. That arresting, ineffable moment when something calls to you is what Chenel has made his business over the past three decades but, really, it has been a life’s work. During Chenel’s early years, his father was an antiquities dealer in Nice. But where Chenel Snr specialised in art deco furniture, his son found himself intrigued by much older objects. “Like most kids, I wanted to do something a bit different,” he says. Alongside his wife, Gladys, he moved to Paris in 1999 to open their first antiques gallery. They were joined by his brother Adrien six years later. “We were generalists at the time because it was about making our mark and meeting our first clients,” says Chenel. Over time, the trio started to specialise in ancient antiquities.
Gladys oversees the curation of Galerie Chenel’s softly lit space that overlooks the Louvre. Among the pieces that she has currently chosen for display is a marble funerary inscription from the end of the first century, made for a former slave who became a calligraphy instructor. It was discovered by archaeologists in the south of France in the 19th century and is now priced at €480,000, given its rarity. “It’s a unique object not only because of the story that it tells but also the remarkable quality and precision of the calligraphy work,” says Chenel.
The detective work needed to trace the origin and journey of these antiques is what Chenel most enjoys about his job. He becomes animated when describing the background of another item, a fragmented statue of Venus, which will be shown at this year’s Tefaf fair in Maastricht. The marble sculpture was made in the first century and has bounced back and forth across the Atlantic in the private homes and museums of several collectors. The sculpture’s missing limbs (it now consists of just a torso, hips and thighs) only make it more special in Chenel’s eyes and well worth its €650,000 price tag. “Rodin once said that fragmented pieces are more interesting than full sculptures and I wholly agree,” he says.
The gallery often sources from private collections and auctions across Europe and the family has developed a shared taste that defines Galerie Chenel. “We have never argued over a piece, as first and foremost we buy something because we love it,” says Chenel. “Every year, our collection has something new but with our identity at the heart of it. That’s what our clients are coming for – the object but also the experience.”
galeriechenel.com
Oldest object in the collection:
An Egyptian bronze cat sculpture dating from 500 BCE, which belonged to a Belgian diplomat in the late 19th century.
The most distant location travelled to find an object:
Australia.
A recent exhibition:
“We have recently wrapped the second chapter of a collaborative exhibition with Simon Porte Jacquemus called Mythes, in which ancient statues were styled with contemporary objects and clothes,” says Chenel.
