A Revealing Discovery 11-19-15

Today I got an answer, at least partially, to my question of where the brocantes find their stuff.  I've been wondering for quite a while where the vendors at the various brocante markets find the things that they put out for sale at the neighborhood sales that always seem to be going on.  Yesterday I went over to one of the Drouot satellite facilities, but I arrived too late, 2 hours after they started the auction.  These are not catalogued sales, there are no shiny brochures, there is nothing but boxes of items that are put up for sale and the bidders have to paw through them and make lightning fast decisions about what they're willing to pay.  If you know what you're looking at you can make some pretty good buys I think.  I don't think anything went for more than 250 euros and a large percentage were less than 50.  So almost every lot is made up of multiple items and the bidding usually takes less than 3 minutes.  You could by any where from 2 to 5 paintings in a lot and pay perhaps 40 euros, then you clean them up and put them on your shelves at a show and sell each one for between 15 and 80 euros making a tidy little profit.
If your really lucky you get one painting that will sell for a multiple of 40 euros and all the others are pure profit as well.   I saw some interesting strategies at work, for example they were selling small bronze sculptures and there was one man who I would guess buys fairly frequently, he gets first right of inspection and then anyone else that wants to look has to grab and inspect as they can.  If he holds it for a little longer and kinda fools around, then he can almost control the bidding, but since it only lasts for a few brief minutes... you kinda get the picture.   He is subtle in his responses to the auctioneer so unless you know his method you don't know who is in and who is out until the auctioneer points to the winning bidder.  It was winding down after an hour or so and I left.
Since it was raining it was an indoor day, I caught a couple buses and made it to the Louvre in good time.  I wanted to look at their prints and drawings rooms so I headed up to the second floor where they are located.  I have a nose for these things and sure enough when I got there, all the rooms were closed and in the process of being changed out.   You know, hundreds of rooms and I laser into the closed ones like a heat seeking missile.  And of course nowhere does it say that the rooms are closed. But all was not lost as I discovered the only trove of late 19th century painting (think impressionists) in the entire Louvre collection.  
There was a collector, Victor Lyon, who between the world wars, who put together a collection of paintings that commenced with the 15th C. and finished in the early 20th C. When he bequeathed it to the Louvre in his late wife, Helene's, memory the conditions were that it would always be on display and that it would always be displayed together as a single collection.  The Louvre stressed that it was faithfully following the wishes of the donors, unlike the Barnes collection in Philadelphia bless their money grubbing hearts.
Also there was a second private collection that consisted of nothing but pretty first rate portraits, but artists such as Goya, Lawrence, Rubens, and Zuloaga etc. small but very fine.
As I was headed out my path took me past the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  I never get tired of seeing it and today was extra special because there were a few periods of minutes duration where there were fewer than 10 people, fantastic.





It is hard to describe how few people are out and about but here is a view of the courtyard where the pyramid and entry are located.
After that feast for the eyes I headed back to the apartment, as it was still a bit moist out.