Alice Jossaume
Director
Expert at the Court of Appeal of Paris
Member of the French Syndicate of Professional Experts in Works of Art and Collections (SFEP)
Member of the Company of Judicial Experts in Works of Art and Furnishings(CEJOA)
Originally from Switzerland, she developed a passion for ancient Chinese civilization and its history very early on. Her grand-father who was a Swiss notary and writer transmitted to her the taste of Chinese history. In 1997, she starts to study Chinese language, history, litterature and culture at the Faculty of Humanity in Geneva, and later in Aix-en-Provence. She then continues her art market studies at EAC School in Paris in 2002 and meets Thierry Portier in 2004, she joins the Cabinet Portier immediately. All the years at the side of Thierry Portier and her many journeys to Asia has helped her to get inside the Asian culture and appraise a great number of objects in private collections and institutions. She focuses motstly on Chinese scholar’s items and ceramics from the Ming and Qing dynasties, gilt bronzes from the Himalayas and China, Japanese ceramics, prints, netsuke and tsuba or sculptures from South-East Asia.
She has appraised important collections such as the Robert de Semallé collection of important Chinese objects and photographs of the Yuanmingyuan, the Portier collection of Japanese prints and ceramics, the Robert de Strycker collection of Cnese lacquer and porcelain or the Edward Choate O’Dell collection of Chinese snuffbottles. She teaches chinese art market for futures auctioneers at the école du Louvre and Drouot Formation. She travels all over France and Europe to appraise private collections or write judicial reports. She speaks french, german, english, italian and chinese.
Camille Despré
Junior specialist
Camille Despré became interested in China at a very young age through the language she has been studying since college.
She graduated from the First Cycle of Ecole du Louvre, specializing in History of the Arts of the Far East, and then from the Second Cycle “Art Market” course, as well as a foreign languages, literatures and civilizations bachelor in Chinese at INALCO.
She wrote a first dissertation on the Clémence d’Ennery collection and a second on expertise in Asian arts and its market. Quickly turning towards the art market, she began her career by joining the Jacques Barrère gallery.
Her studies also led her to study in Taiwan in 2015 and to move to Shanghai in 2018-2019. On her return, she joined Cabinet Portier as a junior specialist.
Still close to the university world, she was in charge of tutorials with works at the Ecole du Louvre and is currently in charge of practical tutorials in Far East Art at the Ecole du Louvre.
My favorite sold item
The item of my dreams
A recumbant mystical beast cloisonné box. Mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795),
inventory n° : M.192:1-1917, ©Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Ma Xiaoxia
Junior specialist
She grew up in a family of intellectuals in China. After four years of university studies in ancient Chinese, she moved to France to pursue her dreams of Art.
In 2013, she had the chance to join Cabinet Portier as a junior specialist. During the years she worked for auctions, she gradually developed an interest in ancient Chinese art, particularly Chinese painting, calligraphy and embroidery, which led her to a certain degree of conoisseurship.
Lorraine Bertier
Junior specialist
After completing the undergraduate programme at the École du Louvre, specialising in the arts of Indianised cultures, she continued her specialisation in Himalayan art with a Master’s degree in Asian Religious Arts at SOAS University of London.
She wrote her first dissertation on the conservation of temples in Nepal, which led her to work in Nepal and subsequently in India in the field of cultural heritage conservation, collaborating with UNESCO and private organisations. It was in India that she learned Hindi in order to coordinate teams of restorers on conservation and restoration sites.
During a second Master’s degree at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris, she turned her attention to Himalayan portable art objects, began studying Tibetan, and shifted her focus towards the art market. During these years, she also began teaching the arts of Indianised cultures at the École du Louvre and delivering lectures as part of professional training programmes for the art market, including those at IESA. In 2022, she embarked on a PhD, pursuing her Master’s research into the historical restoration of Himalayan art objects.
She joined Cabinet Portier in 2023, where she has contributed to the sale of exceptional Himalayan works of art, including a monumental 18th-century Tibetan gilt-bronze Hayagriva, sold at Audap in October 2023.
