Unpaid invoices, disagreements between partners… Serge Gainsbourg’s private mansion, open to the public in September 2023, has been placed in receivership for cessation of payments.
Unpaid invoices, questionable management and disagreement between partners: Maison Gainsbourg in Paris is fully booked but has been placed in receivership for cessation of payments, barely a year after its opening. On September 20, 2023, Serge Gainsbourg’s legendary lair, at 5 bis rue de Verneuil, opened its doors to the public in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. An accomplishment for his daughter Charlotte, owner of the place inside, preserved intact, where her father lived for 22 years and died in 1991.
Just opposite, at 14, there is a museum which traces the artist’s work and the Gainsbarre, piano bar. Supported by public partners and the luxury brand Saint Laurent, acclaimed by the public, Maison Gainsbourg is sold out until the end of the year. But behind this facade, his financial situation has already turned red, as revealed The Informed . In cessation of payments since August 9, the operating company of the private mansion of Serge Gainsbourg and its annexes (SEHPSGA) requested a placement in receivership, recorded by the Paris commercial court on September 18, i.e. two days before blowing out his first candle.
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In March 2023, the court had already had to rule on a dispute between the two partners of the project – 50% each -, namely Charlotte Gainsbourg and Dominique Dutreix, real estate developer via his company Coffim, sentenced to a suspended sentence in the Elf affair.
This the 1.5 million euros
However, both had validated “a partnership agreement”in December 2019, agreeing that Charlotte Gainsbourg would not give “no guarantee” in obtaining bank loans to carry out the development work and operating expenses of the hotel and museum. The working capital of the SEHPSGA was to be supplied by “associate current accounts set up exclusively by Dominique Dutreix”specifies the agreement, emphasizing that it undertook to request reimbursement “when companies are profitable”.
But the court notes that from 2022, “disputed withdrawals” more than 482,000 euros are made between Mr. Dutreix as president of Coffim and Mr. Dutreix manager of SEHPSGA, “without the slightest notification” and contravening the commercial code. These non-compliant financial transactions lead to a critical situation of accounts… which are also marred by irregularities because they have never been approved. The operating company also did not benefit from the working capital necessary to launch the activity, which started without paying its suppliers and service providers: security, cleaning, trustee, electricity, accountant, etc.
New financing
The list of unpaid debts accumulates and the slate falls: the SEHPSGA, “despite bank debt of 3.5 million euros, shows a supplier debt of 1.6 million euros” approximately, counts the commercial court. During the procedure, Dominique Dutreix contested certain debts, explained that he was able to provide new bank financing and ultimately considered that the partnership agreement lacked clarity as to the obligations of the parties. However, this document is “perfectly clear”according to the court in its order.
On March 28, the judges therefore ordered the Dutreix partner to reimburse the operating company a total amount of approximately 1.5 million euros. That is almost the equivalent of the amount of short-term debts, which led to the cessation of payments. What about the future of Maison Gainsbourg, now managed by a judicial administrator?
“The company is profitable but it has accumulated old debt linked to its start-up and it cannot meet this debt in the short term”declared to AFP Maître Jean Aittouares, counsel to Charlotte Gainsbourg, brushing aside any hypothesis of closure. “The revolution in this case is when Charlotte Gainsbourg realizes the sums embezzled and that creditors are not paid”he emphasizes. Contacted by AFP, Dominique Dutreix’s lawyer did not respond.
The commercial court must observe to what extent and by what means Maison Gainsbourg can extricate itself from this bad situation: it will rule on maintaining the observation phase, planned to last six months, during a hearing at the beginning of November .
