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One of the pieces of the Palais de l'Elysée visible on the occasion of the "Journée du patrimoine français" in Paris on September 20, 2008. Pierre HOUNSFIELD / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The French state complains about the theft of seven works of art disappeared from the Elysee Palace, according to the newspaper Le Parisien . It is an old plague that strikes the salons of the Republic, the ministries, the embassies and the prefectures: 50 000 works of art are thus missing.

The complaint was filed last month for the disappearance of statuettes stored at the Elysee or its annexes. Seven objects among the thousand works declared missing at the Palace, a place yet among the most controlled state.

Before a report of the Court of Auditors was alarmed in 1995, decades of laissez-faire characterized the management of this heritage.

Since then, the State has set up specialized agencies, including the Commission to collect deposits of works of art to inventory and reference the pieces.

According to the CRDOA, among the 467,000 works owned by the State, 50,000 - paintings, carpets, statues or furniture - would be missing today. Thus, a bronze statue signed Paul Landowski has not been seen at the Ministry of the Interior since 1959.

Rarely masterpieces, it happens that these objects end up on online sales sites. They are then spotted by the police of the Central Office against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) which handles 2,300 complaints to date. A tiny part of the objects is found.

But when justice passes, she strikes hard. Thus, a sub-prefect of Normandy was sentenced to 2 years in prison last year for theft of a contemporary painting still estimated at 130,000 euros.