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PARIS - Forget your grandmother's wedding ring: France's oldest pawnbroker will now take in a vintage claret dug out of the family cellar as security for a tide-you-over loan.
A household institution, the Paris Credit Municipal was set up in 1777 to offer the poor an alternative to usurers and their punitive interest rates, on a model created by a Franciscan monk in 15th-century Italy.
Run on a not-for-profit basis in partnership with the city, it decided last month to open its doors to wine as collateral for short-term loans, as well as the usual artworks, watches, jewels or antiques.
"People started arriving within days, we never expected so many. It's a very promising start," said a spokesman for the pawnshop, Vincent Vogt, who said it had taken in 400 bottles since March 17, from Paris and the provinces alike.
One Parisian doctor turned up with a dozen bottles of 1985 Romanee Conti, at 5,000 euros (8,000 dollars) a pop, and a 1961 Chateau Petrus, one of the world's most prized vintages. He left an hour later with a 20,000-euro loan.
At the other end of the scale, a pensioner came with a shopping bag full of 60-euro Pomerol from the Bordeaux region, walking out with 200 euros.
Located in the heart of the historic Marais district, the Credit Municipal acquired its nickname -- "Ma Tante" or "Auntie" -- when a son of the 19th-century monarch Louis Philippe pawned his watch and chain to cover a gambling debt, telling his mother he left it "chez ma tante".
It currently has custody of some 10 million items, including France's second largest collection of artworks after the Louvre, both pawned works and thousands of others deposited for safe storage.
"People think a pawnshop is something dusty out of an Emile Zola novel -- but it's still very much a reality," said Vogt.
"We offer subsistence loans, as little as 30 euros, for people who are really on the edge. But we also have great French fortunes who will come here to deposit a master's artwork".
The Paris pawnshop was well-placed to branch out into wine: its vast headquarters, the size of three soccer pitches, come complete with a prised 18th-century wine cellar.
With thick stone walls, 80-percent humidity, and vault-like security conditions, its cellar can accommodate up to 90,000 bottles in "optimum conditions", Vogt said.
"People had asked us in the past if we took wine. For one thing, pawning a bottle of wine from a cellar is more discreet than unhooking a picture from the wall, or removing a sofa from a living room."
But the idea really took off in 2006, after Paris city hall asked the pawnshop to auction 5,000 bottles of world-class wines, collected under former mayor Jacques Chirac, in a sale that raised nearly one million euros.
"We realised there was an incredible interest among foreign buyers. And that wine was really something that could be traded," said Vogt. "Wine has become a safe investment, on a par with stocks. And it can only improve with time."
He said France's 19 other Credit Municipal branches -- including in wine-growing areas Bordeaux or Bourgogne -- were looking at Paris with "a sparkle in their eye", but that few would have the wine storage capacity to offer the same service.
Credit Municipal employs an outside expert to value the wine -- it only takes bottles worth 60 euros or above -- and will instantly issue a 12-month renewable loan for half of its worth.
Ninety-three percent of all borrowers repay their loans in full and reclaim their possessions, the broker says. In the remaining cases, the goods are sold off to pay off the debt at auctions prised by antique and art dealers.
"We hold two or three themed auctions per week, for paintings, silverware, watches. So logically, we will also be holding wine sales," said Vogt.
So the advice to the wine-lover is: watch out for the bargain-basement Mouton Rothschild. - AFP/ra
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