Lyon (AFP) – Iconoclastic businessman and sculptor Thierry Ehrmann was sentenced Thursday to four months in prison for having threatened to kill the mayor of the town near Lyon where his museum is located, the subject of a legal battle for more than 20 years.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 19:00

The Lyon criminal court went significantly further than the prosecution, which had requested a 12-month suspended sentence during the hearing on September 21 against Thierry Ehrmann, founder and CEO of Artprice, the world leader in the listing of the art market, the lawyer for the mayor of Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Me Arnaud Paturat, told AFP on Friday.

Thierry Ehrmann was accused of having issued death threats in September 2025 against Guillaume Malot, councilor of this small, wealthy town in western Lyon, a scene filmed in front of a business in the city center.

“We welcome this decision, it is important to show that threats against elected officials do not go without criminal response,” reacted Me Paturat, adding that the mayor “will now be able to move on to something else”.

Thierry Ehrmann, who denies having made these threats, regretted to AFP that he had been convicted "on the basis of an inaudible recording" and announced his intention to appeal.

Suffering from a neurodegenerative disease which, by his own admission, gives him "extraordinary creativity and strength", Thierry Ehrmann created the "Abode of Chaos", a private open-air museum made up of more than 6,000 works, almost exclusively his own.

Rusty metal sculptures rub shoulders with Dadaist and Situationist manifestos, Chinese ideograms and stenciled cave portraits of artists, leaders, dictators and terrorists. The surrounding walls of this extravagant ensemble are blackened and stained with libertarian portraits and inscriptions.

The conflict with the town hall dates back to 2004, when the mayor at the time sued Thierry Ehrmann for non-compliance with the town planning code. It concluded in 2025 when the Ministry of Culture recognized the Abode of Chaos as "a total work of art", in the same way as the Ideal Palace of Postman Cheval.

© 2026 AFP

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