Abode of Chaos

About

The Abode of Chaos (French: Demeure du Chaos) is a contemporary art museum located in Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, a small town in the vicinity of Lyon, France, with over 2,500 works from many different artists, including the owner Thierry Ehrmann. Ehrmann is the founder and CEO of Groupe Server and Artprice.com, both of which are headquartered at the Abode. The artwork is based around the transformation of the 17th century post house into a replica (post-)war zone, which contrasts with the peaceful village a few kilometers up the Saône river from Lyon.

The mayor of the town said of the house: "It's humanly intolerable, ugly, dramatic, with its images of destruction. What you think, for me it's not art, it's a provocation." The Abode of Chaos has been the subject of several laws, and – in 2009 – France's highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that Ehrmann would have to return his home to its pre-Abode of Chaos state. In 2013, the Grenoble Court of Appeals imposed a fine for continued non-compliance of €750 per day.

The Court of Cassation intervened in the case again in 2014 by reversing the lower court's decision, ruling that Ehrmann should have been assisted by counsel...