Owners sue dealer for cheating them into selling antique African mask for $157

This photograph taken on March 24, 2022 shows a "Ngil" mask of the Fang people of Gabon which was estimated at 300,000/400,000 euros and which was auctioned on March 26, 2022 at the Montpellier auction house. Photo by AFP

The couple, from the French department of Eure-et-Loire, called the dealer in June 2021 to sell some items, according to the news site News in France.

They ended up selling a carved wooden mask brought back to France by an ancestor of the family, who was a former colonial governor in Africa, for 150 euros ($157).

They found out several months later while reading a newspaper that the mask would be put on auction in the French southern city Montpellier. Only then did they know the mask was a rare artifact with less than a dozen held in museums around the world, according to Artnews.

As listed by the auction house, the mask was a Gabon’s traditional Fang mask used on special occasions such as weddings, funerals, and other ritual events.

It was later sold for 4.2 million euros ($4.4 million).

The couple subsequently filed a case against the dealer to a judicial court in the French commune of Alès. Though the case has not been settled, they were granted a protective seizure of the proceeds of the sale, since the court ruled that the dealer had "withheld his suspicions about the true value of the artifact."

They also reportedly turned down the dealer’s initial compensation offer of 300,000 euros.

Meanwhile, the court is scheduled to give its final decision by the end of this year.