François Duret-Robert (born in 1932) died in Paris on 13 October at the age of 92. He was a ground-breaking figure in the French art market, as a journalist, editor, teacher and legal specialist.
Having studied mathematics and political science at the prestigious l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Duret-Robert became editor and deputy head of the art magazine Connaissance des Arts until 1996, where he specialised in the art market. He also worked for the French newspapers Le Figaro, Le Monde and Objet d’Art. For the latter he wrote more than 100 amusing and irreverent columns on the art market, ending in 2020.
Duret-Robert was a senior lecturer at five universities, notably the École du Louvre, the Sorbonne and in Lyon, teaching legal and fiscal aspects of the art market. He wrote five books, all but one focused on aspects of the art market, and he was particularly renowned for creating the publication Droit du Marché de l’Art (Art Market Law) in 2002. It is now in its eighth edition, and is often simply called “The Duret-Robert”.
He was honoured with two French awards, Chevalier des Palmes académiques and Chevalier dans l’Ordre national du Mérite—and in 2017 the CEDEA, European Confederation of Art Experts, named him “art market personality of the year”.
For those who knew him—as this writer did—he was an engaging and good-humoured colleague, always ready to help and to share his profound knowledge of the art market, its personalities and quirks as well as its legal aspects. Having known everyone in the market, and for so long, he had a deep fund of anecdotes about the various players. These ranged from dealers and collectors, to the Comte de Paris, former pretender to the French throne, whose attendance, as Duret-Robert recounted, at the central saleroom at Drouot sent the auctioneers into a tizzy because of a delicate question of who should take precedence in the seating arrangement.
Elegant, inevitably wearing a bow tie, François Duret-Robert was a huge presence in the French art market and will be sadly missed.
