[132]
Sometimes a chateau can be paid for by a sale of the iron-railings of
the park, or the lead on the roof. - Here are found chances for a
good many bargains, and especially with objects of art. "The titles
alone of the articles carried off, destroyed or injured, would fill
volumes."[133] On the one hand, the commissioners on inventories and
adjudications, "having to turn a penny on the proceeds of sales,"
throw on the market all they can, "avoiding reserving" objects of
public utility and sending collections and libraries to auction with a
view to get their percentages. On the other hand, nearly all these
commissioners are brokers or second-hand dealers who alone know the
value of rarities, and openly depreciate them in order to buy them in
themselves, "and thus ensure for themselves exorbitant profits." In
certain cases the official guardians and purchasers who are on the
look-out take the precaution to disfigure " precious articles " so as
to have them bought by their substitutes and accomplices: "for
instance, they convert sets of books into odd volumes, and take
machines to pieces; the tube and object-glass of a telescope are
separated, which pieces the rogues who have bought them cheap know how
to put together again.
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