内容摘要：The palace, which displays such items in its vast museum collection, expressed an interest in buying the chairs but the price was deemed too dear.

The palace, which displays such items in its vast museum collection, expressed an interest in buying the chairs but the price was deemed too dear.

Questioned by police about the acquisition of properties in France and Portugal worth €1.2m while on an income of about €2,500 a month, the man – who it turned out worked as a handyman in Parisian galleries – confessed to his part in working as a middleman who collaborated in the furniture fraud, AFP news agency reported. The money trail then led investigators to Mr Desnoues and Mr Pallot.Some of those originally indicted in the case, including middlemen, later had charges against them dropped.

But charges against both Laurent Kraemer and Galerie Kraemer, which sold on some of the forged chairs to collectors such as Versailles and Qatar's Prince al-Thani, were upheld.Prosecutors allege that while the gallery itself may have been duped into first buying the fake pieces, Mr Kraemer and the gallery were "grossly negligent" in failing to sufficiently check the items' authenticity before selling them on to collectors at high prices.In his closing arguments, prosecutor Mr Rayer said that based on Galerie Kraemer's "reputation and contacts, they could have taken the furniture to Versailles or the Louvre to compare them.

"They could also have hired other experts given the amounts at stake and considering the opacity on the origin of the chairs."Speaking in court, a lawyer representing Mr Kraemer and the gallery insisted his client "is victim of the fraud, not an accomplice", stating Mr Kraemer never had direct contact with the forgers.

In a statement to the BBC, lawyers Martin Reynaud and Mauricia Courrégé added: "The gallery was not an accomplice of the counterfeiters, the gallery did not know the furniture was fake, and it could not have detected it".

"Like the Château de Versailles and the specialists who classified the furniture as national treasures, the Kraemer gallery was a victim of the forgers," they added.She continued: "His right knee eventually fell into the void over the cliff and he was trying to grasp the grass with his hands to pull himself up.

"He didn't shout and there was no noise."The Tourgon family then phoned the emergency services.

An air, land and sea search operation began involving the Irish Coast Guard, gardaí and Irish civil defence volunteers who used boats, drones, divers and a helicopter.A police witness, Garda Colm Collins, told the inquest he had received a call at 14:00 that day after a male was seen falling off the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.