French dealer Bertrand Scholler was among those convicted for falsely claiming that Brigitte Macron, wife of the French president, is a transgender.
On Monday, a Paris court found Scholler and 9 others guilty of online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the First Lady of France. Tiphaine Auzière, Brigitte’s daughter and one of the lawyers representing her, argued in court that the campaign by the accused caused “deterioration of her health [and] deterioration in her quality of life.”
The common theme in the slander perpetrated by the accused was claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender person who was actually born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux (which is actually the name of her older brother). Some of the accused also characterised the relationship between Brigitte and her husband Emmanuel Macron as pedophilia, since the French president was only 15 when he first met the then-39-year-old Brigitte. While the court dismissed the first claim, it did not comment on the latter.
Bertrand Scholler was given a six-month prison sentence, which was suspended. He was also asked to suspend his social media account, which he used prominently to do the harassment, for six months. Other people convicted in the case were author Delphine Jégousse, who received a six-month suspended sentence, and novelist Jean-Michel Trogneux, who received an eight-month suspended sentence. All 3 were instructed to attend online harassment awareness training. All 10 accused were fined 600 euros each and ordered to pay a total of 10,000 euros to the defendant.
Also Read: Art Loan Defaults On The Rise, Indicating Market Concern
Bertrand Scholler is the founder of the art gallery 55 Bellechasse in Paris, which he co-founded in 2013. He opened Miami and Switzerland outposts in 2016 and 2019, respectively. Prominent in its heyday, the gallery has been largely defunct since 2020.
