00:00In this judgment of February 27, 2007, the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation ruled on the
00:05'Error as a vitiating factor of consent, in relation to the sale of a work of art.
00:08In this case, buyers purchased at auction an Egyptian statue presented in the catalogue as dating from the reign of
00:14Seostria III, between 1878 and 1843 BC.
00:19However, expert analysis reveals that the statue actually belongs to a different historical period.
00:24The buyers then requested the cancellation of the sale due to a mistake regarding the substance.
00:28The Court of Cassation ruled in their favor, considering that, in accordance with former Article 1110 of the Civil Code and
00:33Article 2 of the decree of March 3, 1981,
00:36the mention of a historical period in the catalogue when it immediately accompanies the designation of the work without reservation
00:42express, constitutes a guarantee for the buyer.
00:45Therefore, the inaccuracy of this information is sufficient to characterize the error and justify the nullity of the sale.
00:51This ruling therefore serves as a reminder that an error regarding the creation date of a work of art can constitute a
00:55error regarding a substantial quality of the thing and lead to the cancellation of the contract.
00:59Subtitling by Radio-Canada
