Gobelins pietra dura panel picked out at six figures at Paris auction
It was in the hope of saving on the huge sums spent procuring works of art from abroad that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister of finance, began inviting craftsmen to work at the Gobelins royal manufactory on the outskirts of Paris.
The project began in 1662 with the consolidation of a number of tapestry workshops, but by 1688 ha…