The Louvre in Paris will return more than 250 items after bequeathing from the late art patron and socialist bauble Adèle de Rothschild because they mistakenly commit the museum’s collection.
Five years ago, this error was discovered after crossing the Louvre collection. The items will be returned to the artist’s private cultural organization Des Artistes, which provides funding for artists and art schools. Its headquarters are located in Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, and the Baroness was built on 11 Rue Berryer in Paris and used as her private residence.
Rothschild died in 1922 and bequeathed the building and its contents to the French state on the condition that it became a museum called “Fondation Salomon de Rothschild”. Another rule is that her curiosity cabinet remains unaffected.
The small museum was opened to the public in 2017 and has between 2,000 and 2,500 visitors each year.
However, in 2020, after Des Artists asked the Louvre to participate in the joint stock, the museum’s decorative works and Islamic art collections were found, including 258 items in the cabinet. “Some objects of curiosity joined the Louvre as early as 1923, others were already stored there in the early 2000s to protect them in the work of Hôtel Salomon de Rothschildtransparent Des Artistes director Laurence Maynier told Lemond. He said it was “unreasonable” to include the work in the museum’s collection.
After years of negotiations, in April, the Louvre finally agreed to hand over the objects to the foundation. “This is neither victory nor revenge, but the crystallization of what is legal and necessary,” Menier said. “If we cannot respect the conditions of the legacy, we will undermine any possibility of creating others. ”
Maynier added that about 30 other items from the Curiosity Cabinet currently on display at the Louvre will be there for five years, “giving curators time to find alternatives.” In return, the Louvre will recover 104 pieces that have been included in its stock, but are still stored with Des Artists.
The Louvre recently returned the first batch of objects, and the second batch is expected to arrive at the foundation next week. “We will integrate them with the image documents that have to be rebuilt the cabinet as much as possible with the original state,” Maynier said.
According to the Rothschild Archives, Adèle became a reclusive after the sudden death of the Baroness’s husband, Salomon James, and rarely left Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. Before her death, she was involved in a dispute with her daughter due to marriage outside of the Jewish faith.
“The rift between Adèle and his daughter has never been cured, and most of her Jewish art collection has been bequeathed to Musée de Cluny; other collections have been bequeathed to the Louvre Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and the National Library of France,” the archive said in a statement.
