Bouchardon Bust, Once Used as a Door Stopper, Officially Set for Sale with $3 M. Estimate

Invergordon, a small town in central Scotland, could see its coffers filled following a decision by county committee to sell a marble bust made by the French artist Edmé Bouchardon in 1728 that, a quarter of a century ago, was propping open the door of a storage shed.

The bust, which was bought for roughly $6.31 in 1930, could fetch more than $3 million through a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s, which appraised the sculpture at the request of the local government last year. 

While the sculpture was originally purchased for display, a series of mysterious events led to it be placed in a storage shed “with other discarded council paraphernalia.” Former Invergordon community councilor Maxine Smith, who now serves on the broader governmental body the Highland council, told the Guardian last October that she found the bust while digging around the shed for a set of ceremonial robes that had gone missing.

“I found the robes…” she said “and also a wee white marble sculpture thing holding open the door. It could have been binned quite easily.”

According to USA today, the proposed sale had to go through a number of bureaucratic hoops before it was approved. After it was appraised last October the Invergordon Common Good Fund, pushed for the sale, arguing that the bust could provide the local community with revenue that it wouldn’t normally have access to. 

“To be honest, it’s doing nobody any good sitting in the Inverness archive centre, which is the only place secure enough to cover the insurance costs,” Smith told The Guardian last year. “In Invergordon we have areas of social deprivation but no funding to put into anything.”

After getting approval from the Tain Sheriff Court, an eight week public consultation was held and the sale ultimately approved by a local committee. That committee noted that a replica of the bust, which portrays 18th century politician Sir John Gordon, could always be made for locals and visitors to enjoy. When Sotheby’s had the Gordon appraised, they’d also found a buyer willing to pay the $1 million price tag, and provide a museum-quality replica.  

However, the planned sale has its critics. The art historian Bendor Grosvenor told BBC Radio Scotland that the work basically “has fallen into the lap of Highland council for no money at all and it seems all they want to do is sell it for a lot of money to someone outside Scotland, when really there is no reason they can’t lend it to Inverness Museum or National Galleries of Scotland or National Museum of Scotland.”