Meanwhile in France: "300-year-old chairs with no seats, backs or upholstery sell for $1.4M"

I'm tellin' ya, there's something about French furniture.
Where the Chinese have their national pork reserve and the American's have both the strategic oil reserve and the cheese stockpile, the French government actually has well, as noted in May's "Tech CEO says France should sell Mona Lisa to cover coronavirus losses"

I don't know if this idea will fly with the French people.
I mean, the government is already going to dip into the Strategic Furniture Reserve and sell off a few things—although probably not the desk I've been looking at.
Maybe better to pledge the pretty picture as collateral for a 500 billion euro loan from the ECB.
If France can get a negative interest rate the loan should be self-liquidating sometime later in the millennium....

And from the New York Post:

You’d probably want to be able to sit down after blowing this much money.

Four ancient chairs have sparked an unexpected bidding war, selling for a staggering $1.4 million at auction — even though they have no seats, backs or upholstery.
The 300-year-old decorated frames, made in 1778 for the younger brother of ill-fated French king Louis XVI, were expected to sell for around $350,000, French auctioneers Artcurial predicted....

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