Background
Lhéritier was born on 21 June 1948, in Nancy, France, the son of a plumber from Lorraine. He grew up in Meuse, in Void-Vacon, and lived in Strasbourg until 1984 before moving to Nice.
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Gerard Lheritier
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Career
He is a sponsor of the National Library of France and around 2004 was the buyer of the manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. In March 2016, he was arrested by French police in connection with an investigation into a suspected pyramid scheme fraud. Lhéritier"s early career was in the French army after which he was an asset manager.
This caused him to research balloon mail and write several books on the subject, including a novel, Les Ballons de la liberté (1995).
In 1990, he founded the company Aristophil in Nice, to buy historical manuscripts, letters and other documents, and then to sell shares in these items to investors. He is a sponsor of the National Library of France.
He was the buyer, in about 2004, of the manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. In 2004, Lhéritier established the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits at 8 Rue de Nesle in Paris, and it moved to the Boulevard Saint-Germain in 2010.
lieutenant closed in 2015/16, and its contents have been impounded by the French authorities.
In March 2016, Lhéritier was held in Paris in police custody in Paris, and released after posting bail of €2 million. He is under formal investigation for a suspected pyramid scheme fraud. Lhéritier"s lawyer, Francis Triboulet, says that he immediately invested €40 million of the prize money in Aristophil, which was "proof that it was legitimate".
1: 1990, 2: 1992.
