A French court has jailed 35 porters at the country's leading auction house for stealing thousands of valuable items over many years, reports the BBC.
Three auctioneers at Hotel Drouot also received suspended jail sentences in the case, which has shocked France's art world.
The porters, who handle items before auction, were found guilty of removing many of them and selling them on their own account much later.
They saw this as a perk of the job.
The thefts happened mainly while the porters were clearing out the homes of dead people, and transporting objects that were to be sold by Hotel Drouot.
The practice was only discovered after a tip-off when one porter was found with a missing painting by the 19th-Century French artist Gustave Courbet.
In the searches that followed, thousands of items were discovered, including jewels, artworks by great masters and Ming dynasty ceramics.
One lawyer told the court that everyone knew what was going on but no-one wanted to speak out.
The lavish lifestyles of some of the porters had been a source of suspicion, with one apparently driving a Porsche 911, AFP news agency reports.