Traders at the world’s largest flea market were celebrating today after owner the Duke of Westminster agreed to sell the Paris site.
Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster and Britain’s eighth richest man, is reported to have sold the Paul Bert and Serpette markets in Saint-Ouen, north of Paris, which attract five million visitors a year, to a French investor for around 30million Euros (£24.6 million).
It comes nine years after his company, the Grosvenor Group, bought the site for 50million Euros leading to alleged legal problems and cultural misunderstandings between the British aristocrat and antiques dealer tenants.
They was accused of viewing the market as a property investment and damaging the feel of it by trying to attract wealthy visitors.
He allegedly raised rents and annoyed tenants by allowing the instalment of restaurant Ma Cocotte.
Around 150 of the market’s 420 stallholders are understood to have taken him to court over alleged rent rises and non-renewal of leases.
The Grosvenor Group denied the allegations that rent had been significantly raised, claiming it had sought to simplify a complex system.
William Delannoy, the mayor of Saint-Ouen, whose family has had a stall on the market since 1975, told of his delight at the Duke’s exit.
He told The Times: “He saw the flea market as a property investment and not as the acquisition of a small part of France’s heritage...Given the tensions, Grosvenor preffered to sell rather than trying to understand these atypical markets.”
Buyer Jean-Cyrille Boutmy, chief executive of media group Studyrama, said: “My aim is to maintain the pioneering and eclectic side of the markets while helping them to go upmarket”.
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Bruno Malet, chairman of the association of dealers in the Paul Bert and Serpette markets, said: “This purchase is excellent news, Mr Boutmy seems like an honest and well-intentioned man”.
Meanwhile, he claimed the Duke of Westminster “mistreated his French subjects”.
The Duke was not available for comment.
