PARIS, July 8 (UPI) -- A collection of catalogues detailing French art history dating back to 1732 will go on sale this month in the French town of Nogent-sur-Marne.
Between July 26 and 30, an auction house in the town will be selling off some 18,000 catalogues of art auctions. The catalogues serve as an historic marker to the days after the French Revolution, when impoverished French nobles sold their valuables -- jewels, books, pictures, rugs -- across the Channel to Britain.
Later catalogues document auctions selling the paintings of celebrated artists and writers of the 19th century: David, Delacroix, Ingres, Balzac and Dumas.
Seven volumes are devoted entirely to the sale of the contents of Edgar Degas' studio after the artist's death.
